SF 487 
.H75 
1922 
Copy 1 



.H£C4a^HEN 




LESSONS 10 and 11 

AMERICAN POULTRY SCHOOL 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN 



OR THE SCIENCE OF 



SELECTING AND BREEDING POULTRY 
FOR EGG-PRODUCTION 



BY 
WALTER HOGAN 

Revised and Improved 

BY 

T. E. QUISENBERRY 



Copyrighted, 1913, in the United States and Canada, Great Britain, 

Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and Denmark. 

[All Rights Reserved.] 

Copyrighted, 1914. Copyrighted, 1916. 

Copyrighted, 1919. Copyrighted. 1920. 

Copyrighted, 1921. Copyrighted, 1922 



PRICE. $2.00 



Published and Sold by the 

AMERICAN POULTRY SCHOOL, 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 



.'W 



"-o 



DEDICATED 

TO THE POULTRYMEN WHO. 

LIKE THE AUTHOR, 

DO NOT KNOW IT ALL. 



0CI.A659438 



Jefferson City 

The Hugh Stephens Co. 

Printers 






THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



■-^. 




Lady Show You, a White Plymouth Rock hen, that holds the world's egg record 
for a two-year-old hen; laid 281 eggs in the National Egg-laying Contest at the Missouri 
btate Poultry Experiment Station, Mountain Grove, Mo. She met the Hogan test 



>• 




X. 



1 




THE MISSOURI State 

POULTRY EXPERIMENT 

Station 

Mountain Grove, 

Mo. 





iSSA-^^ 



MISSOURI 

NATIONAL 

EGG 

LAYING 

CONTEST 



w 




MOCNTAIP 

uROVE 

191I-1912 





Photographed by request of the Chamber of Commerce, Petalumai Cal. 

These hens weighed less than 4 pounds each and laid 131 pounds and 2 ounces of 
eggs. They won the prize for laying the greatest weight in eggs in the National Egg- 
laying Contest. Each hen's eggs would have sold for $4.50 on the Petaluma Market, 
if reduced to No. 1 eggs. They are the result of five years' breeding by the author 
from common Petaluma Single Comb White Leghorns. It is possible for the reader 
to do the same with almost any breed by following instructions in this book. 



PREFACE 



This is an age which demands action, applied thought, and a prac- 
tical, actual, and workable science. The world is demanding to know, 
not "What are you?" or "What do you look like?" but "What can you 
do?" Drones are being culled out in all lines of business activity and 
rightly so; and the same is true with the poultry business. The hen 
which delivers the goods is the hen which is in demand. "The hen that 
lays is the hen that pays." 

We have two reasons for publishing The Call of the Hen. Some 
three years ago Mr. Hogan sent us three males, all Single Comb White 
Leghorns; one was of his 280-egg type, selected according to this system; 
another was of the 150-egg type, and the third was of a 70- or 80-egg 
type. He also sent us two pens of hens of his own selection and breeding. 
We trapnested all the hens, and bred from all three males. The results 
in every case have borne out Mr. Hogan's claims and the truthfulness 
of his methods of selection and breeding. We have also tested the hens 
in the egg-laying contests; taken measurements and made tests and 
judged their capacity for laying as per this system. The Call of the Hen. 
The results so nearly tally with the system in practically every case that 
we feel that this is a valuable method of selection and breeding, which 
should be in the hands of everyone who attempts to raise poultry. 

Capacity, condition, type, and vigor must all be taken into con- 
sideration in determining whether a hen will be a good producer or a 
poor producer. By making a careful and sensible application of the 
rules made known in this book, it is possible for any poultry-raiser to 
avoid great loss. 

We are told and have good reason to believe that it is true, that 
the average farm hen lays less than 80 eggs per year. If that be true, 
about half the poultry is being kept at a loss to the owner. If this 
is the condition, are we not justified in doing something to attract the 
attention of the farmers and poultry-raisers to methods and practices 
which will lead to the production of more eggs than the average hen, 
and to the necessity of culling and selection, and to more careful and 
painstaking methods? 

The object of The Call of the Hen is to stimulate an intetest 
in increasing egg-production in all varieties of poultry and to encourage 
the breeding of strains of high-producers. We have come to the point 
where our efforts to breed fowls with perfect plumage for show purposes 
has overshadowed that of the ability of our hens to lay; and it can cer- 
tainly result in no harm to call the attention of the breeders of the 
nation to the good which would certainly come from a study of the things 
which would tend to increase egg-production. We should all be vitally 
concerned in any attempt to better conditions, to increase the pro- 
ductiveness of the hen, and to give impetus to an industry which is 
already one of our greatest agricultural factors. 

O H— 2 



6 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

For a half century the fanciers and poultrymen generally have 
devoted their attention to the showroom in the development of shape 
and color. No opportunity has been offered or anything specially 
done to encourage the farmer and poultryman to develop the natural 
resources of the hen — her ability to lay eggs. A few of our best experi- 
ment stations have made some investigations along this line and done 
some very valuable work indeed. Here and there an occasional poultry- 
breeder has given some thought and attention to breeding for egg-pro- 
duction; but certainly, as a whole, the attention of breeders generally 
has not been along this line, and it seems that this important matter has 
been too much neglected. 

Haphazard methods of mating and breeding don't pay, and in- 
discriminate methods cannot prove successful in building up a flock of 
laying hens. There never was a time in the history of this country 
when poultry and eggs were in greater demand; the price at which 
poultry and eggs sell has increased much more in proportion than has 
the price of feeds necessary to produce these products; but because the 
industry is flourishing today more than ever before does not justify 
us in continuing indiscriminate or foolhardy methods. The opportunity 
is ours to insure greater profits, if we will but carefully and systematically 
solve the problem which is facing us: "How can we insure a reasonably 
high average egg-production?" 

The interests of the fancier are served through the showroom. If 
a breeder enters birds in a showroom and is beaten, he tries to improve 
his flock and perfect it by introducing new blood or by improved methods 
of breeding and careful selection. If he wins, he tries to keep his flock 
in that high state of perfection. It is just as important, and even more 
so that he know just what his flock can do in the matter of production, 
and he ought to use the same care in trying to perfect his strain of layers. 

There are exceptions to all rules. You will find some exceptions 
in selecting, testing, and breeding your poultry according to the method 
described in The Call of the Hen; but many breeders have tested 
it for some six or eight years; many of these have doubled their egg 
yield in this time. We feel certain that Mr. Hogan's method of selec- 
tion and breeding will prove him to be to the poultry industry what 
Burbank is to horticulture, Edison is to the electrical world, or Darwin 
or Mendel to the breeding kingdom. That the mastery of this method 
f>f selection and breeding, and sensibly applying the principles revealed 
herein, will mean much to the poultry industry, is our honest belief. 



CHAPTER "A" 

THE VALUE OF THIS BOOK. 

The world is full of people who are not willing to give credit where 
credit is due. The American Poultry School, as publishers of this 
book, wish to say that no one man has done as much to aid the poul- 
trymen of the world in culling out their drones and nonproducing hens 
as has Walter Hogan, who first discovered this system. 

Seven years ago, when this School first started to advocate this 
system, the agricultural colleges and Government authorities made 
sport of the thought that anything could be told about the productive 
ability of a hen by her external characteristics. Too many scientists 
are not willing to give credit unless they themselves are at least parti- 
ally responsible for the discovery. At that time poultry journal editors 
and poultry writers and contributors ridiculed any method of selection 
by examination of external characteristics. These same authorities 
and writers looked upon anyone with suspicion who made the state- 
ment that he or she had a hen with a record of more than 200 eggs. 
But in these seven years we have noted a wonderful change. All Gov- 
ernment and State Institutions have been making tests, culling flocks 
and putting on demonstrations where the methods recommended in 
this book were always used, in whole or in part, in culling all flocks. 
Some new ideas are being developed from time to time and there is 
no system that is perfect. But to this School and this book is due 
the credit for starting all this agitation which has resulted in a definite 
system of culling and selection being universally used and adopted. 

Some breeders hesitate to sell their stock and subject it to this 
sort of a test, because the per cent of birds that would come up to the 
high standard which we all want is comparatively small. Some people 
who apply this test, condemn it because they do not know how to use 
it. Others say it did not work in their case, but upon examination 
we find that they used it only in part. 

In applying this test no one characteristic can be depended upon 
to indicate the true value of the bird being tested. You must take 
into consideration the vitality and general health of the fowl. It 
should have a bright, prominent eye that extends out from its head, 
apparently, and the eyelid should not be heavy and overhanging. 

The bird should be a late moulter. It should be broad across the 
back and the width should extend well back toward the tail. The 
length of the ribs, or the depth of the bird up and down, should be 
as great as you can get it in the individual. 

In the good layer the vent will be moist and large; in the poor 
layer it will be dry and puckered. The pelvic bones should be reason- 
ably thin and straight, but I would not select birds for breeders where 
the pelvic bones are too thin unless the other bones of the body seem 
to be sufficiently large to insure the bird's strength and vitality. Select 
birds with as much width between the pelvic bones as possible. 

(7) 



8 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

A Specimen must have lots of body capacity for large digestive 
and egg organs, and for the consumption of a lot of food from which 
to manufacture a large number of eggs. Therefore, select birds with 
as much distance between the points of the pelvic bones and the point 
of the breastbone as you can find. This will vary somewhat when 
specimens are moulting and not in laying condition. They will show 
less width or distance at that time than when in full laying. 

The skin over the abdomen must be soft and pliable and lacking 
in thick, heavy fat or flesh in that particular section of the bird. The 
skin on a good layer will feel soft, loose and pliable in all parts of the 
body, more so than in a poor layer. 

If a hen has been a good layer in a yellow skinned variety, the 
yellow pigment will be laid out of the legs, toes, beak and eye rings 
of the bird, because same has been used by her in coloring the yolk 
of the egg. 

No single one of these characteristics or points mentioned should 
be taken into consideration in passing final judgment on any specimen. 
They all play a more or less important part and each should be given 
due consideration, and if that is done a poultryman can select the good 
birds from the poor ones with almost as much accuracy as if he had 
used a trapnest. 

The best time to apply this test is to begin about the close of the 
heavy laying season to the beginning of the next laying season. In 
other words, in most climates between June 1st and December 1st. 
It is a good idea to go over the birds twice during this period, making 
a first selection and later on a final selection, and then again before 
the birds are finally put into the breeding pens. 

No definite method has yet been found for the selection of the 
good layers among pullets before they have ever laid any eggs. It is 
difficult to use any system outside of the trapnest with any great de- 
gree of accuracy until the bird has passed through one laying season. 
Something can be told about pullets, but we do not recommend apply- 
ing this system until the birds have had an opportunity to produce 
and reach their full state of growth and development. Next to the 
trapnest there is no system in the world that is more accurate than that 
outlined in this book. 

We would recommend that you read the suggestions that we have 
given below for the selection of your layers and the culling of your 
nonproducers, then after you have studied Mr. Hogan's suggestions 
on the pages which follow and you have concluded all that he has said 
on the subject, come back to this Chapter "A" and read all of this 
chapter over a second time. You will then get its full effect and the 
entire book will be clearer and the system more easily and throughly 
understood. 

SELECTION VITALLY IMPORTANT. 

Right feeding alone is not the key to increased egg production. 
More depends on careful selection of the hens. Too many farm flocks 
are nonproducers and drones. Perhaps this is true of the entire flock, 
or -maybe only a part, but the drones are always responsible for the 
limited profits. 

By selection, I do not mean that the farmer should buy prize 
chickens at exorbitant prices, though I do believe in good blood. But 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 9 

selection is just as necessary in a flock of poultry as in a dairy herd. 

Now, when you ask if the farmer can afford to keep chickens when 
grain is so high, if you refer to the usual flock of culls, I will say, "No." 
Grain is too valuable to be thrown promiscuously to nonproducing hens. 

It may be that you will think when I mention selection that I 
refer to a lot of scientific and complicated experiments. I simply mean 
that you should go into your flock, pick out the culls and get rid of them. 
A hen of low vitality is a menace to the flock, because she is susceptible 
to disease. She is an expense to her owner because she is a consumer 
and not a producer. It is a funny thing, but many farmers who would 
be quick to get rid of a poor cow, will keep two or three dozens hens 
that never have made a cent for him or never will, no matter how he 
cares for them. 

HOW TO MAKE SELECTION. 

The rules that govern selection are as simple as A, B, C to any 
observing person. For instance, a hen that is slow to feather is lacking 
in vitality. Anyone ought to know that. You cannot stuff her and 
make her lay eggs. She is by Nature a weakling. Hens do not lay eggs 
because they want to; they lay eggs because they are strong and vigorous 
and egg laying is a natural result which they cannot avoid. That 
tendency must be bred in them. Why, if the average farmer would 
give half the attention to his poultry that he does to his live stock he 
would find the poultry the best investment in many cases. Success 
comes from being willing to discard. When you have culled out the 
poor hens and got them clear off the farm, then it is time to begin think- 
ing about feeding for egg production and, also, let me emphasize, water- 
ing for egg production, for water is as essential as feed. 

At this time one of the greatest problems facing American poul- 
trymen is the ratio of profit between the cost of feed and the selling 
price of poultry and eggs. No poultryman can object to the high 
price of feed if the selling price of poultry and eggs is proportionately 
high. Thousands of the more or less inexperienced poultrymen, who 
were loaded with poor stock, drones and slackers, or who, because of 
inexperience, haphazard methods, or poor management, have been 
forced out of business. Many others in the same class are certain to 
go, but the future promises much for the man who has the goods and 
who knows how. 

In order to lay well, a bird must have a sound body. As a first 
consideration, the bird must be vigorous and healthy if it is to be able 
to lay well. Vigor and health are shown by a bright, clear eye, a well 
set body, a comparatively active disposition and an indication of good 
blood circulation. Further, the bird must be free from physical de- 
fects, such as crooked beak; excessively long toenails; eyelids that 
overhang so that the bird cannot see well; excessively scaly legs, or 
anything else that would keep the bird from seeing or getting an abun- 
dance of feed. 

LOSS OF FAT AND LOSS OF COLOR OF FAT DUE TO LAYING 
PIGMENTATION CHANGES. 

A laying fowl uses up the surplus fat in the body. Especially, it 
removes the fat from the skin. In yellow skinned breeds, this loss of 
fat can readily be seen by the loss of the yellow color. The different 



10 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

parts of the body tend to become white, according to the amount of 
fat which is being taken from these parts, depending, of course, on the 
amount of fat which has been stored up in these various parts, and the 
circulation of blood through them. It should be recognized that all 
yellow-color changes are dependent on the feed, the coarseness of skin, 
and the size of the bird. A large bird fed on an abundance of green feed, 
or other material that will color the fat deep yellow, will not bleach out 
in color in these various parts as quickly as will a smaller bird, or one 
which naturally has pale yellow colorings. The changes occur in the 
following order: 

Vent. The vent changes very quickly with egg production, so 
that a white or pink vent on a yellow-skinned bird generally means 
that the bird is laying, while a yellow vent means that the bird is not 
laying. 

Eye Ring and Ear Lobe. The eye ring, that is, the inner edge of 
the eyelid, bleaches out a trifle more slowly than the vent. The ear 
lobes of Leghorns and other white-lobed varieties bleach out a little 
more slowly than the eye ring, so that a bleached ear lobe means a 
longer or greater production than a bleached vent or eye ring. 

Beak. The color leaves the beak beginning at the base and gradu- 
ally disappearing until it leaves the front part of the upper beak. The 
very tip of the beak is usually white before the bird is making eggs, 
and should not be confused with the loss of pigment due to produc- 
tion. A very small ring just on the crest of the curve of the beak is 
often the last part of the beak to lose its color. The lower beak bleaches 
faster than the upper, but may be used where the upper is obscured 
by a horn, or black color as in Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. 
On the average-colored yellow-skinned birds, and on the average-sized 
bird, a bleached beak means fairly heavy production for at least the 
past four to six weeks. 

Shank. The shanks are the slowest to bleach out, and hence in- 
dicate a much longer period of production than the other parts. The 
yellow color leaves the outer ring of the scales, then leaves the entire 
scale, on the front of the shanks first, and finally, after a longer and 
greater production, leaves the scales on the rear of the shanks. The 
scales on the heel of the shank — that part of the shank just below the 
back of the hock- joint — are the last to bleach out, and for this reason 
may generally be used as an index as to the natural depth of the original 
yellow color of the various parts of the bird. A bleached-out shank 
on an average-sized bird with an average yellow color, indicates that 
the bird has been laying fairly heavy for at least from 15 to 20 weeks. 

Reappearance of Pigment. When the bird stops laying, the yellow 
color comes back into the vent, eye ring, ear lobes, beak, and shanks 
in the same sequence as it left, but the color returns much more quickly 
than it went out. 

A vacation or rest period can sometimes be determined by the 
end of the beak being bleached and the base being yellow, or a longer 
vacation or rest can be determined by the shanks being pale or some- 
what bleached and the beak showing a fair amount of yellow pigment. 

In other words, if the degree of yellow color in a bird gradually 
increases in density, from the vent to the eye ring, to the lobe, to the 
base of the beak, to the point of the beak, and to the shanks, it shows 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 11 

that the bird has laid continually without rest for a period indicated 
by the amount of yellow present; whereas, if the bird shows more yellow 
in any preceding part of the sequence as outlined, it indicates a rest 
period depending on the difference of the yellow color found in these 
parts. 

BODY CHANGES DUE TO LAYING. 

Vent. A laying hen has a large, moist vent, showing a dilated 
condition and looseness, as compared with the hard, puckered vent of 
nonlaying hens. 

Abdomen. The abdomen is dilated as well as the vent, so that 
the pelvic arches are wide-spread, and the keel is forced downward 
away from the pelvic arches, so as to give large capacity. The more 
eggs the bird is going to lay in the following week, the greater will be 
the size of the abdomen in proportion to the size of the bird. The 
actual size of the abdomen is, of course, greatly influenced by the size 
of the bird and to a certain extent, by the size of the egg laid. 

Quality of Skin. Heavy production is shown by the quality of 
the skin. Fat goes out from the skin and body with production, so 
that the heavy producers have a soft, velvety skin that is not under- 
laid by heavy layers of hard fat. The abdomen in particular is soft 
and pliable. 

Pelvic Arches or Pelvic Bones. Heavy production is shown by 
the quality and the thickness and stiffness of the pelvic arches or bones. 
In heavy producers these are apt to show high qualities by being thin 
and pliable rather than stiff and thick; hence the thicker and blunter 
the pelvic bones and the greater the amount of fat and meat covering 
them, the less the production, or the longer the time since production 
ceased. 

The pelvic bones are those found on each side of the vent and 
abdomen. They are just below the tail bone and just above the rear 
point of the breastbone. These bones will be thin, straight and pliable 
in a good layer. They are usually crooked or thick and covered with 
heavy skin and fat in a poor layer. Determine their thickness by 
pinching them between the thumb and first finger. These bones should 
not only be thin, but there should be a good distance between the point 
of the breastbone and the pelvic bones. There should also be con- 
siderable distance between the two pelvic bones when the hen is in 
laying condition, but not so much when she is not laying. 

The spread or distance between the pelvic bones and point of 
breastbone can be roughly measured for practical purposes by deter- 
mining how many fingers can be laid between the bones. If the spread 
measures two fingers or less the probabilities are that the hen is not 
laying, while if the spread is greater, she is probably laying. In measur- 
ing this spread the size of the hens of different breeds, with the cor- 
responding natural difference in the spread, must be kept, in mind. 

Distance from Pelvic Bones to Keel Bone. A hen laying well is 
a good eater. Her intestines are, therefore, fuller and more distended, 
and require more room than when she is not laying and not eating so 
much. When laying, the ovary and oviduct are of greater size and 
require more room. To provide this extra room, the distance from 
the rear end of the keel to the pelvic bones increases with a consequent 
increase in size of the abdomen. A spread of three or more fingers 



12 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

in the smaller breeds such as the Leghorn, and four or more fingers 
in the larger breeds such as the Plymouth Rock, indicates that the 
hen is in a laying condition. A spread of less than three fingers in 
the smaller breeds and less than four fingers in the larger breeds in- 
dicates that she is not in laying condition. 

Sternal Processes. These, like the pelvic arches, should, in a 
bird of good production or in a bird which is producing heavily, show 
good quality by being soft and pliable, prominent, and generally bent 
outward. 

Head. One of the finer indications, yet one of the most valuable 
in picking the high layers, is the fineness of the head. The head of 
a good layer is fine; that is, the wattles and ear lobes fit close to the 
beak and are loose and flat, the face is clean cut, and the eyes are full, 
round, clear, and prominent, especially as seen from the front. 

Feathering. The high layer is trimmer and always apt to be 
somewhat more angular; that is, the feathers lie closer to the body 
than on the poor layers, and after heavy production the oil from the 
base of the feathers does not keep the plumage relatively so sleek and 
glossy as on a poorer layer. On the other hand, the plumage of the 
heavy layer is apt to become worn and threadbare. 

Comb, Wattles, and Ear Lobes. The comb, wattles, and ear lobes 
enlarge or contract, depending upon the activity of the ovary. If 
these parts are large, full, and smooth, or hard and waxy, the bird is 
in full lay. If the comb is limp, the bird is only laying slightly, but 
is not laying at all when the comb is dried down, especially at molting 
time. If the comb is warm, it is an indication that the bird is coming 
back into production. 

Molting. When a bird stops laying in the summer, she usually 
starts molting. The later a hen lays in the summer, or the longer the 
period in which she lays, the greater will be her production; hence the 
high producer is the late layer and the late molter. The length of 
time that a hen has been molting, or has stopped laying, can be de- 
termined by the molting of the ten large feathers at the end of the 
wing — primary feathers. It takes about six weeks to renew com- 
pletely the primary feather next to the middle feather of the wing, 
and an additional two weeks for each subsequent or outer primary 
to be renewed. 

Temperment and Activity. A good layer is more active and yet more 
easily handled than a poor layer; she shows more friendliness, and 
yet elusiveness, than a poor layer. A poor layer or a bird which is 
loafing is apt to be shy, staying on the edge of the flock, and will gener- 
ally squawk when caught. 

T5rpe. In order to make a good record a hen must not only lay 
long, but heavily. In order to lay heavily she must have sufficient 
body capacity to digest large amounts of food rapidly. Large capacity 
in a laying hen is shown by a body that is deeper at the rear end of 
the keel than at the front end. The under line should be fairly straight 
and the back should be comparatively horizontal. 

A small capacity hen stands erectly. The body is either very 
shallow or, in the case of beefy individuals, the abdomen shows a pro- 
nounced sagging at rear of keel. A small-capacity hen generally pos- 
sesses a hump on the back. The comb generally has sharp, narrow 
points, with the blades pointing up. 



THE CALL Of THE HEN. 13 

The general body conformation of a heavy producer conforms 
very closely to a rectangle with pronounced angles rather than smooth 
curves. 

A male shows the same general characteristics except that the 
abdomen is not so deep. 

The keel bone should be long and the body relatively deep in pro- 
portion to weight or length. 

Cull These Hens. Sick, weak, lacking vigor, inactive, poor eaters, 
molted or started to molt, with small, puckered, hard, dry vents; with 
small, shriveled, hard, dull-colored combs; with thick or coarse stiff 
pelvic bones, pelvic bones close together, small spread between pelvic 
bones and rear end of keel, and full, hard, small abdomen. In breeds 
with yellow skin and shanks the discarded hen should also show yellow 
or medium yellow shanks and yellow beaks and vents. 

Save These Hens. Healthy, strong, vigorous, alert and active; 
good eaters; not molting or just beginning to molt in September or 
October; with large, moist vents; with large, bright-red combs; thin, 
pliable pelvic bones well spread apart, wide spread between pelvic 
bones and rear end of keel, and large, soft, pliable abdomen. In breeds 
with yellow skins and shanks, the hens saved should also show pale 
or white shanks, and pale or white beaks and vents. 

GET RID OF THE DRONES. 

Before carrying your birds through another season, take one more 
look at thQm, and keep the following rules in mind when making your 
selection : 

1. Market those which have been slow to feather or seem to lack 
vitality. 

2. Keep the pullets which mature quickly and start laying first. 
Those which start laying when less than 200 days old will be the best 
layers if they have the right care. 

3. Keep the late molters. 

4. Keep the birds with rather large, plump combs and wattles. 

5. Hens with pale vents, pale beaks and pale legs have been good 
layers. 

6. The skin of the best layers should be rather loose and flabby 
on the abdomen between the vent and breastbone. 

7. The pelvic bones must be thin, straight, flexible and wide 
apart. 

8. Market the hens which are baggy behind and which have a 
heavy, fat, thick abdomen which hangs down below the point of the 
breastbone. 

9. Keep the hustlers and heavy eaters that go to bed late and 
with full crops. 

10. Birds that have long toenails and show no signs of being 
workers are usually unprofitable. 

11. If a bird meets the above requirements, it should have a 
broad back, long body, be stoutly built and in good flesh. 

12. If a bird is not molting and still has a small dried-up comb 
covered with a sort of whitish substance, or if a bird has thick or crooked 
pelvic bones, which will be found on each side of the vent and above 
the point of the breastbone, these are always money losers. 



14 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



The best known methods of selecting the laying hen without the 
use of the trapnest is contained in this book. It tells plainly how to 
weed out the slackers and how to breed to increase egg production. 
No man or woman can afford to feed a flock of drones at the present 
prices of feed, but the good layers will make more profit than in any 
previous year. 



Kansas City, Mo. 



T. E. QUISENBERRY, Pres. 
American Poultry School. 



13? PAYS TO CULL 
TO. ELIMIHATB lUFERIOR BIRDS 
TO SEI.ECT BEST TOR BREEDING} 



GOOD 



HOW TO TELL 
from the 



THE 



BAD 



White v 
Large > 
Moist/ 

White 
White 
White 
White 



Tent 



Eye ring 
Ear lobe 

Beak , 
Shanks 



Wide 

Thin 



> 



Large \ 
PlTunp > 
Bright/ 

Bright \ 
Bulging/ 

Lean 



Span 
Comb 

Eye 
Heaci 



< Yellow 
Small 
Dry 

Yellow 
Yellow 
Yellow 
Yellow 

/Harrow 
\Thiok 

/Small 
/ Shrunk 
\Du11 

/Dull 
\Flat 

?lat 



FIG. 4— CULLING IN A NUTSHELL. 
This effective chart was prepared by the New Jersey Experiment Station and puts 
the principal external characters of good and poor layers in sharp contrast. 



FOREWORD 



The writer's introduction into poultry-keeping was in the city ol 
Boston, Massachusetts, in the autuann of 1857. By the spring of '68 
I had a flock of nearly 400 birds, among them a lot of the best Single 
Comb White Leghorns that I could find. I went in person to New 
York City to get them. My friends thought such extensive poultry- 
keeping the limit of folly, and freely remarked that I was going crazy. 
In those days eggs were almost worthless during the spring and summer 
months, but would often sell for fifty cents per dozen in the winter. 
This set me to thinking that perhaps it might be possible to increase 
the egg yield in the winter and by so doing make the fad a better paying 
proposition. Through my experiments I found that all hens were not 
alike; that some would be very good table fowl and poor layers, others 
would be very good layers and poor table fowl, while still other hens 
would be very fair table fowl and very fair layers. At this time we had 
all the old-fashioned breeds we could get, and discarded them all for the 
Single Comb White and Brown Leghorns. I had decided that knowl- 
edge was of commercial value only when applied, and having a working 
knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the hen, I decided to try 
to turn the same to a commercial account, and in a couple of years 
had evolved what is now known as the "Walter Hogan System," which 
consists in ascertaining the value of a hen for the purpose you desire 
by the relative thickness of and distance apart of the pelvic bones. 
Before 1873 I had communicated this discovery to some of my friends 
under promise of secrecy. One of them, Albert Brown, once a well- 
known banker of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and O. H. Farrar of the 
same place, an overseer in the Hamilton Mills, and a Light Brahma 
specialist. After using the above so-called "system" for a number of 
years, I developed a new method, which I have taught in part privately 
for some years, and which I now introduce to the public under the title 
of "The Call of the Hen; or, The Science of Selecting and Breeding 
Poultry." ^ 

My friends early prophesied that my penchant for invention would 
land me in the poorhouse in my old age. So by some occult inspiration 
I was induced to abstain from publishing any part of my discoveries 
until 1904, when, by the advice of Ex-Congressman Haldor E. Boen 
of Minnesota, to whom I had confided my poultry secrets some years 
previous, I decided to publish only my first discovery, known as the 
"Walter Hogan System" (which will be found in the latter part of this 
work), after the same had been tested at the Minnesota State Experi- 
mental Station by Professor Hoverstadt, the superintendent of the 
station. However, before taking any steps to bring this matter before 
the public, I wrote to some thirty or more poultry judges, who were 
supposed to be selected as judges to officiate at the coming poultry 
show to be held in Buffalo during the exhibition at that place in 1901, 
asking them if they knew of any way to tell when a pullet was about 

(15) 



1(\ THE CALL OF THE_HEN. 

to lay. I thought that if they did not know that much of the laying 
proposition, I would be safe in going ahead with publishing my secrets. 
The letters I received were left in Minnesota when I came to California 
shortly before the earthquake in 1900, so I cannot name the judges at 
present, but they will remember me as the proprietor of the Fergus 
Falls Woolen Mills; and I must say they replied in a very courteous 
manner, saying there was no way except the general appearance of the 
bird, as to its maturity of form, redness of comb and wattles, singing, 
looking for nest, etc. One only of the number charged me one dollar 
for this information. 

Failing health obliged me to dispose of my manufacturing business 
and retire to the farm, and it was in the spring of 1905 before I published 
my "Walter Hogan System," when it appeared in a number of poultry 
papers. (See Reliable Poultry Journal, March, 1905.) I did not 
copyright the work at that time, although my experience in mechanical 
inventions had taught me that I should have done so, and the following 
August imitations began to appear until in 1912 a number of different 
parties in the United States and foreign countries were claiming author- 
ship and selling it under the same or different titles. 

My years of research and expense brought me no financial returns, 
and in the spring of 1906 I left Minnesota for California, a physical and 
financial wreck. After having regained my health, I began here at 
Petaluma to build up the same kind of a flock of layers that I had done 
in previous years, with the idea of publishing my entire work when I 
should have bred up a strain of 200-egg hens and better. 

After I removed to California, Professor M. E. Jaffa, of the Uni- 
versity of California, became interested in the matter, and at the request 
of the Petaluma Poultry Association, had the discovery tested at the 
California Poultry Experimental Station for two years, and continued 
for two years longer for the purpose of determining the value of four- 
year-old hens as layers, as it is outlined in this book in the chapter 
relating to the selection of the best layers in a flock. 

It was also tested in New Zealand by D. D. Hyde, chief poultry 
expert for the New Zealand Government, and Prof. Brown, of the New 
Zealand Poultry Experiment Station. I have repeatedly been requested 
by my friends in different parts of the world to publish the full matter 
in book form, but poor health and lack of sufficient funds have pre- 
vented me from doing so until now. As this work will be copyrighted, 
I do not anticipate the literary pirates will raid it as they have my 
former work. In justice to the poultry fraternity, I want to say that 
while I have been and am now a member of the American Poultry 
Association, and have raised poultry fifty-six years, and now raise them 
by the thousand, I have never in the past classed myself as a "poultry- 
man" in the strict sense of the word. Neither do I claim that I am the 
only one who has discovered the facts set forth in this book. I only 
know that I have never seen them in print before. I know what the 
results of following this method have been with me, and I feel safe in 
assuming that the things I have discovered have not been known. 
Hundreds have known me as an inventor and woolen manufacturer 
where one would know me as a "poultry crank;" and the apology I have 
for'offering this book to the public in a field already crowded with poultry 
literature is the earnest solicitation of my friends. 

Walter Hogan. 

Petaluma, Cal., July 7, 1920. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN; OR, THE SCIENCE 
OF SELECTING AND BREEDING POULTRY 

By WALTER HOGAN. 
CHAPTER I. 



The Underlying Principles Which Govern the Selection and 
Breeding of Poultry are Capacity, Condition, Type, Con- 
stitutional Vigor and Prepotency. 

In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman in Oregon 
which read as follows: 

"Dear Sir — My husband is a machinist. He is getting old and 
his health is failing. We have both worked hard all our lives, and have 
saved enough to buy a small place in the country. We can no longer 
do hard work, and in looking for some light occupation that would 
bring weekly returns, we have looked favorably on the poultry business. 
We have kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years, 
and think we have done well with them. We also take four poultry 
papers, but each one tells a different story, and we cannot decide what 
to do. We have been years accumulating our little savings, and if we 
should lose them, we would have no resources left for our old age. I 
enclose two articles from the September (1910) number of the Pacific 
Fanciers^ Monthly. One article gives me to understand that it is almost 
hopeless to think of making a living with hens, if we depend on selling 
eggs and poultry on the market. The other article holds out the promise 
of a possible income of a thousand dollars per year from 300 hens if 
handled under right conditions. One means utter failure and bank- 
ruptcy in market eggs and poultry, and the other means the fullest 
measure of success. Both of these articles are in the same number 
and one follows the other on the same page. How can you reconcile 
these two conflicting opinions?" 

(The articles follow.) 

"A Common Question Wisely Answered. 

''By George Scott. 

"Can a living be made from poultry? Probably there is no one 
who has attained distinction in the avicultural arena to whom this ques- 
tion has not been put hundreds of times; and it is a question of perennial 
interest to the poultry-keeping public. There are many people who will 
tell you that a living, and a good living, can be made from poultry- 
keeping alone, and as proof of their statement will point out the numer- 
ous men whose names are household words in the fancy. On the other 
hand, a vast majority will most emphatically give utterance to state- 

(17) 



18 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

ments calculated to deter any poultry-keeping aspirant, and give weight 
to their contention by citing hundreds of cases where men have tried 
and failed. Truly the mass of evidence appears to be with the latter 
belief, for it is an indubitable fact that for every person who succeeds 
in this business a hundred fail. But, looking at the matter from a logical 
point of view, the fact that a minority rely on poultry for their daily 
bread, is ample evidence that it is quite possible to make a living out of 
poultry-keeping, and the abnormal number of failures merely proves 
that the business is a difficult one. 

"The fact that a man who has failed in some other business takes 
up poultry-keeping with a like result in no sense proves that poultry- 
keeping does not pay; it is only what could be expected, and any ex- 
perienced aviculturist would have prophesied such a result. It is, 
however, useless to explain such things to the man who is contemplating 
starting a poultry farm. To suggest that he is unfit for the task would 
be taken by him as an insult, for the public, in its ignorance, has con- 
ceived the idea that poultry management is the simplest work that 
anyone can think of — in fact, I question whether an outsider considers 
it to be work at all. 

"Such a hold has this belief obtained on the man in the street that 
it almost amounts to a superstition, and until the fallacy is exploded 
the number of the unsuccessful will be constantly increased. The public, 
apparently, cannot understand the difference between keeping a few 
fowls as a paying hobby and managing a poultry farm is an enormous 
one, and that the minor difficulties to be met with in the former case 
are increased a thousand fold in the latter. 

"Probably there is no other business which calls for so many qual- 
ifications as that of the poultry-farmer, and to say that the man who 
has been successful in any other walk in life is totally unfitted for this 
business, though somewhat exaggerated, will give the tyro some idea of 
what is wanted. An intimate detailed knowledge of poultry manage- 
ment, an unlimited reserve of perseverance, determination, and resource, 
a genuine love for fowls, the capacity for hard, continuous work for 
seven days a week, combined with business knowledge and thrifty man- 
agement, are all essential, and will, with ordinary luck, lead one to the 
desired goal. 

"I am very dubious as to whether a living can be made from utility 
poultry-keeping, pure and simple — that is to say, by selling eggs and 
birds solely for edible purposes. A profit can undoubtedly be made, 
but it is so infinitesimal that the income derived from this source alone 
would, I am afraid, scarcely suffice for the needs of the most parsimonious. 
If it is decided to specialize in utility points, pure-bred stock must be 
kept of the popular varieties, and eggs for hatching, day-old chicks, 
and stock birds must be sold. This will make all the difference, and 
once a connection has been worked up, there is no reason why the busi- 
ness should not pay, and pay well. 

"The breeding of exhibition birds is, without doubt, the most 
profitable branch, and when once a name has been made, stock and eggs 
can be disposed of at most remunerative prices. Success, however, 
cannot be attained at once; it is often the work of years; and many 
breeders never rise from the ranks of mediocrity. Moreover, much 
capital is required to start an exhibition poultry farm, and one's expenses 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 19 

incurred in the management are infinitely heavier than in the case where 
utility points are the only consideration, 

"I would not advise anyone unversed in poultry-culture to give up 
a situation, however poor, in order to go in for poultry-keeping as a 
means of earning a livelihood. To think of such a thing is foolish in 
the extreme, but for anyone to burn one's boats behind one in this way 
would be suicidal. What I would suggest to poultry-keeping aspirants 
(and I believe the number of these reaches well into four figures) is that 
they should keep as many fowls as they can attend to properly in their 
spare hours, and see what profits they can make from the birds. Above 
all, they must find out if they have a genuine love for the work, for with- 
out this nothing can be done. When a name his been made as a breeder 
of good stock, then, and then only, is it time for the amateur to consider 
the advisability of adopting poultry- keeping as a business; and long 
before this point Is reached the glamour of the idea may have faded 
for the life of a poultry-keeper is. contrary to popular belief, far from 
being a bed of roses. Practically all the men who are today making 
a living from poultry commenced keeping fowls as a hobby, and the 
knowledge and experience which they gained in this way enabled them 
to found the establishments which are to-day of world-wide reputation. 

"To those who are qualified for the work poultry-keeping offers 
a good living; but to the idle, the thriftless or the pleasure-seekers of 
this holiday-making age it offers more desolate prospects than any other 
trade or profession. In this business nothing but dogged determination 
will enable the beginner to climb the rugged, precipitous path to success, 
and anyone who is lacking in this essential, or who is afraid of hard, 
continuous work, wil' save himself the obloquy of failure by choosing 
some other field in which to exercise his powers." 

"The Good Little Hen. 
"What She Will Do for You if You Will Treat Her Right. 

''By Mrs. A. Basley. 

"There is money in poultry for the man and especially for the 
woman that will dig it out. This I can assure the Fanciers' Monthly 
readers, if they are in doubt. 

" 'Dig it out* seems a curious way of putting it. When I spent 
a summer in a big mining camp in Colorado, I noticed a great many 
holes in the sides of the mountains. 'Yes,' said a miner, 'and not 5 
per cent of those holes have paid.' It was appalling to think of the 
thousands of dollars lost in those holes. 'Give me a hundred hens,' 
said I. The money it took to dig one of those unprofitable holes would 
have started a fine poultry plant and the good little hens would have 
brought in a livmg for their owners. 

"There is money in poultry. Every inch of a hen is valuable. 
I would like to give you one of the values of the hen and what it costs 
to keep her. 

"First, there are the eggs she will lay, if properly fed and treated. 
Twelve dozen eggs per year is the average, although I personally know 
poultry plants now being operated in Southern California where the 
output, as shown by carefully kept records, is sixteen dozen per year. 
The average price at the Arlington Egg Ranch for the past year was 



20 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

31 cents a dozen, because the proprietor arranged to have his hens 
laying when eggs cost most, in the fall and winter months. 

"Sixteen dozen eggs at 31 cents a dozen means each hen brings in 
$4.96 in eggs, whilst her food costs 10 cents per month or $1.20 per year, 
leaving $3.76 as profit for eggs. 

"There is still another source of profit in the hen, and that is in 
the droppings. At several of the experiment stations it has been found 
that a hen voids about 100 pounds of droppings per year in the fresh, 
moist state. These droppings have been analyzed and show a value as 
fertilizer of from 30 to 35 cents per hen ; the value being controlled not 
only by the market demand, but also by the quality; the droppings being 
richer as fertilizer where the food was rich in protein and where the hens 
are fed the 'full and plenty' method. 

" 'What do you do with the hen droppings?' I asked a beginner. 
Throw them away; glad to get rid of them,' was the reply. At the 
rate of $10.00 per ton, that was a waste of 50 cents per hen. Two of 
our neighbors had lawns which were in so bad a condition from the soil 
being worn out that they were on the point of having them dug out 
and new soil put in and the whole re-sowed, when they thought of their 
hen droppings; these they had spread over the lawns and then raked off 
again and the lawns well watered. In a month's time those lawns 
looked beautiful — better far than if they had been re-made, and at far 
less cost. 

"When I lived in the Eastern States, my window garden was the 
envy and admiration of everyone that passed ; there were flowers galore 
all through the dark winter gloom and cold frosty days. I loved my 
plants, took good care of them in every way, but the secret of the won- 
derful blossoms was hen manure. 

"Once a month I half-filled a bucket with hen droppings, poured 
a kettleful of boiling water on it, filled the bucket with the water, stirred 
it with a stick, let it settle and cool, and watered the plants with that 
liquid. I found that hen droppings enrich the ground for almost all 
plants better than anything; roses are the only exception that I have 
found, they doing much better when fertilized with well-rotted cow 
manure. 

"But to return to our hen. She gives 26 pounds' weight of eggs, 
or sixteen dozen, valued at $4.96; she also gives 100 pounds of valuable 
fertilizer, worth here $10 a ton, or 50 cents per hen, which brings the 
amount of her earnings to $5.40, and at the end of the year we still have 
the hen to eat or sell at market value, about 75 cents or $1.00. If we 
eat her, we have the feathers, which are easily saved, and can be sold or 
made into pillows, the bones pounded up and fed to the other fowls. 

"Poultry pays, and pays better than any other legitimate business, 
considering the amount invested. Why then are there any failures? 
I will tell you why: The failures are not the fault of the good little 
hen. She will always do her duty; she will always respond to the treat- 
ment she gets. The failures are the people who care for the hen. The 
owners are the failures, and not the fowls. 

"Success is what we all want to attain in whatever we undertake: 
and, 'lest we forget' some of the things which lead to success, may I 
repeat that there are three essentials to egg-production. These are: 
Comfort, Exercise, and Proper Food. I would like to review these." 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 

I wrote the lady that both of these articles were right. Let us see 
if we can prove the statement. If the reader has ever had any ex- 
perience with cattle, he knows it would be sure folly to buy a herd of 
Polled Angus or Herefords for a dairy farm, for they have been bred 
for years for beef, and practically everything fed to them goes to meat; 
while it would be just as foolish to buy a herd of Jersey cows and expect 
to make a living from them raising beef, as they have been bred for 
years for butter-fat, and practically everything fed to them goes to milk 
and cream. If the reader's experience has been with horses, he is aware 
that a man engaged in teaming would not select the trotting type of 
horse, neither would a turfman put his money on an 1800-pound Clyde 
horse, if the balance of the field were trotting horses; that would not 
be horse sense. Now, the same comparison holds good in the poultry 
field, except with this difference, that the egg type and meat type in 
poultry have never been segregated into different breeds, and each breed 
bred for a number of years along the line it was intended for — the egg 
type bred for eggs alone, and all birds inclined to meat-production dis- 
carded — both male and female, and the meat type bred for meat, with- 
out regard to eggs, except enough to perpetuate the species, just as the 
typical butter cattle and typical beef cattle have been bred. 

I have seen a great many cases like the first mentioned article, 
where a person would go into the poultry business and get started 
with stock that was of the meat type, and, not knowing any better, 
would think that all poultry was the same as his, and the only way any 
money could be made in the business was to sell fancy birds and eggs 
at fancy prices. Now, these people are not to blame for what they do 
not know. They think their hens are as good layers as any other hens 
and they have no way of knowing any better. 

I have also seen a great many cases like Mrs. Basley writes of 
except the profits were not so large, owing to different environment 
I suppose. These people had the same breed of hens as the parties 
before mentioned, but they were fortunate in getting the egg type, 
and they made money with their hens. Everyone thinks every other 
person's hens are the same as theirs, if they are of the same breed, and 
that is the reason there are so many different conflicting statements in 
the poultry papers, and not because the writers are not intelligent or 
not truthful, as some suppose. From a scientific point of view, and 
apart from the fancy, and as far as the knowledge of meat and egg pro- 
duction is concerned, the poultry business is in its infancy, and the 
people who write for the poultry papers give their experience for your 
benefit. That is all. 

To further impress on your mind the difference between poultry 
and other stock, I would say that while some individual cattle of the 
various beef breeds will not be a paying proposition, the only safe plan 
is to select your leaders from the beef family; and while some Jersey 
cows will not pay as butter-producers, still, as a breed, they are among 
the best for that purpose. Though some trotting horses do not make 
good, as a rule, they will carry you over the road in good time, and though 
some draft-type teams are not sure pullers, they are a success as a class. 

The same general laws apply to all animal nature. The hen is no 
exception, only in this respect: that while cattle and horses have been 
bred so that as a rule novices can select the type they wish by selecting 
the breed, hens have not been bred that way. We have what purport 



22 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

to be egg breeds and dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to 
be a paying proposition as a whole for egg-production. The latter are 
supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs and meat combined; 
some breeders claiming that their breed will give you the very largest 
number of eggs per year and the greatest weight of flesh all in one bird. 
Now, these claims are misleading. It is an utter physical impossibility 
for any hen to be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical 
meat type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the Leghorns, 
Minorcas, Spanish, and a number of other Mediterranean breeds that 
are called "egg type." While the truth is, that while they have been 
bred as best the breedeis knew how along the lines of egg-production, 
you can find vast numbers that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the 
feed they eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the characteristics 
of the beef type, and will lay about three or four dozen eggs per year 
and sometimes not over a dozen. The Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, 
Wyandottes, and Langshans are classed as "dual-purpose" breeds, 
which means hens that will lay a medium number of eggs and give a 
good large carcass for the table; and while this is true in a majority of 
cases, I have seen numerous specimens that laid over two hundred and 
fifty eggs per year, while some would lay little or nothing. In fact, 
while I have bred Leghorns for more than forty years, and they are 
my favorite breed, I must say I have found as good layers (within a 
few eggs) in all the other breeds I have named as I have found in the 
Leghorns, and I have also found as poor layers among the Leghorns 
as I have found in any other breed. As far as the number of eggs is 
concerned, as a rule, I find that the breed of the hen has nothing to do 
with it whatever. 

I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I may say 
in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I have formed by ob- 
servation and experiment during a period of fifty-six years that I have 
kept poultry, not to make all the money I could out of them, but to learn 
all I possibly could about them — in fact, until a few years ago I never 
kept poultry for the ftioney there was in it. The keeping of hens has 
been a passion with me. I have spent years of time and thousands of 
dollars, but I think I have found something that will be of inestimable 
value to the world, and I have found it not because I was any better 
fitted for the work than thousands of other lovers of poultry, but be- 
cause I stuck everlastingly to it, without any regard as to whether it 
paid me in dollars or not. 

As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to whether a 
hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type, capacity, and consti- 
tutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds there is a type of hen where 
everything she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the pro- 
duction of eggs. This we call the "typical egg type." Second, there 
is a type where about half the food consumed over maintenance goes 
to the production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance going 
to make flesh. This is called the "dual-purpose type," as this hen 
performs two functions that are considered necessary in the economy 
of Nature: the production of eggs and the production of meat on a 
commercial scale. Third, there is a type where everything consumed 
over bodily maintenance goes to flesh. This hen we call the "meat 
type," for the reason that practically all her energy is used in producing 
meat. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23 

Now, here we have three distinct types of fowl in almost every 
breed. We have divided these three types into six separate classes 
for each type: 

No. 1 of the typical egg type hen may lay about 36 eggs; 

No. 2 may lay about 96 eggs; 

No. 3 may lay about 180 eggs; 

No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs; 

No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs; 

No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs; 

All this is in their first laying year. 

No. 1 of the dual-purpose type hen may lay about 20 eggs; 

No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs; 

No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs; 

No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs; 

No. 5 may lay about 130 eggs; 

No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs; 

This is in their first laying year. 

No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to a dozen 
eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 may lay from nothing to a couple of dozen 
eggs, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring when the crows lay. 
The reason is very plain, if we stop to think that the same natural 
laws govern all animal (and human) nature. 

The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that is why she is 
usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable place to dust in), and 
all she eats over bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. 
The hen of the sanguine temperament is a little more beefy, and lays 
less eggs; the hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays 
still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament will lay 
little or nothing, almost everything she eats going to flesh and fat. 
(The reader need borrow no trouble over the meaning of the terms 
"nervous," "sanguine," "bilious," and "lymphatic" temperament, if he 
is not familiar with them, as the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify 
matters so that anyone can understand the matter of selecting the dif- 
ferent grades of hens with very little study and trouble.) 

We have said that we have divided the three grades, the egg type, 
dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate classes. There is, 
in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare that we will not take it into 
consideration here, but will explain it later. But we have, in fact, made 
ninety classes of these six for convenience in selection, and the process 
could be extended indefinitely, but it would serve no needful purpose. 

Now, when we consider all these different grades in the hens of 
every breed, and the further fact that there is the same number of 
different grades in the male bird, is it any wonder that there is so much 
difference of opinion in regard to the profits derived from poultry- 
keeping? We have visited hundreds of poultry plants that numbered 
from about fifty to two thousand or more hens each. We have seen 
some flocks of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they con- 
sumed, for the simple reason that they were not the right type of hens. 
They were fine-looking, healthy meat-producers, but there was no 
earthly way possible to feed them that would induce them to lay eggs 
at any time except a few months in the spring when the crows laid, 
and eggs were cheap. The owners of some of these flocks were bright, 
brainy, vigorous business men, who tried every method that usage and 



24 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

science suggested, and fought with sheer desperation to make a success 
of the business, but went down in failure; while their next neighbor, a 
little pin-headed, conceited specimen of humanity, strutting around 
like a peacock, was getting rich with the same breed of hens. "Luck," 
do you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first man was 
unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-hens from stock such as 
that described in the first article of the Fanciers' Monthly, while the last 
man got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock described by Mrs, Basley 
in the second article. 

We once visited a gentleman who had a very extensive poultry 
plant. He had a large number of different breeds yarded off in finely 
appointed yards, with help and financial means to satisfy every need 
of a poultry plant. His pens of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans 
were remarkable layers, while his Cochins, Houdans and Polish were 
very good layers. After looking over the last-named birds, he re- 
marked: "I have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which 
I wish you would look at." After we had looked at them a few minutes, 
he asked, "What do you think of them as layers?" I replied that if he would 
tell me which pen laid an average of all the pens, I would tell him in 
a few minutes. "That pen there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has 
laid an average number of all the eggs laid." After examining the hens, 
I told him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them one 
year. "Why"? he asked. "Because," I replied, "after keeping them 
a year and selling them, the price I would receive for the hens and the 
eggs they would lay would not pay for their feed. I cannot see why 
you keep them." The next evening he said to me, "Do you see that 
man moving into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold those 
Leghorn hens to that newcomer for $500." "Is this an exceptional 
case?" you ask. I have only this to say: that all the David Harums 
are not in the horse business, neither can I see why a poultryman should 
be his brother's keeper, when it is not the rule in other lines of business. 
It seems to me the better way is to study poultry from a scientific point 
of view, so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose you 
want her for, and not have to depend on other people's opinions. 

By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell approximately 
the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying in a year; you can also 
select the hens that will be the best for breeding purposes, for eggs, 
for meat, or as a dual-purpose hen — that is, a hen that will give you 
the largest number of eggs possible with the largest possible amount of 
meat when you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best 
broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens will be 
very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some very good 
dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds, and you can mate 
them with the same type of male bird and breed from these birds for a 
few generations, and their progeny will degenerate. The chickens from 
the hens and cockerels or cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less 
each generation, until in eight or ten generations they may not lay 
enough to pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat 
and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just as the 
6gg type, until they are practically worthless as profitable meat pro- 
ducers. The chicks from the fancy mating may be a failure from the 
fancier's point of view. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 25 

This is the rock that some old poultry-breeders are sometimes 
wrecked upon. One case of national interest was the case of the late 
lamented Professor Gowell, of the State of Maine Experiment Station. 
He had started some years before to breed up a heavy-laying strain by 
using the trap-nest, selecting eggs for hatching from hens that were his 
best layers and conformed as near as possible to the standard, and using 
cockerels hatched from these eggs to mate with his hens. Now this was 
all right as far as it went, but there was something that the Professor 
had not taken into consideration. He had procured the best birds he 
could find, had trap-nested them to discover the hens that were the most 
prolific layers, had selected the eggs from what he had considered to 
be the best hens for the purpose (and few men had better judgment in this 
respect). He had mated up the best-looking cockerels from these best 
eggs from the best-laying hens, and according to all apparent precedents 
was he not justified in expecting an increase each year in egg-production? 
But what were the results? If reports are true, there was a decrease 
in egg-production, and what do you suppose was the cause? There 
must be some cause. There is a cause for every efTect. Sometimes we 
think things just happen; that there is no natural law that governs 
them; that in this or that case it was all chance; that it may not have 
happened to another person, and will not be likely to happen to us again, 
and so we dismiss the matter only to have the same thing repeat itself, 
until we either solve the problem or meet our doom through it. And 
thereby hangs a tale. 

Some time in the summer of 1905 I received a letter from a doctor 
in one of the suburbs of Boston, asking me what I would charge to visit 
Orono, Maine, and have a talk with Professor Gowell, and incidentally 
to drop a few remarks that might be of some help to him in his in- 
vestigations. I had never met the Professor, but I replied to the Doctor 
that I would go (I was then living in Minnesota), and would pay my 
own expenses, as I wished to visit Boston, my birthplace, and where I 
first started in poultry-keeping in 1857, and it would be a small matter 
to go from there to Orono, Maine, where Professor Gowell was con- 
ducting his experiments. While I was waiting for a reply, I decided 
that as Professor Gowell had put so much time and thought into the 
trap-nest proposition and had built so much on that one thing, and that 
as he could get results from it (only it was a waste of time), that in this 
first visit to him I would offer only one suggestion and that was the 
secret of selecting the birds, both male and female, that would be sure 
to breed progeny that would be better than their parents along the 
lines in which the parents excelled, or, in other words, transmit their 
predominating characteristics to their offspring; that is, if the cockerel 
or cock birds and hens were typical meat type birds, the progeny would 
excel along these lines. Some of them would excel their parents in the 
production of meat; they would be hardier, better feeders, would digest 
and assimilate their food better, and consequently arrive at maturity 
sooner, and be of better flavor and more tender, and by breeding these 
birds along the lines laid down by I. K. Felch, of Natick, Massachusetts 
("line breeding" he calls it), they would improve each season, so that 
in a number of years there would be a great difference in their favor 
over their parents. If the pen was a fancy proposition and had been bred 
some years for fancy points, the progeny would show a decided improve- 
ment in a few years over their parents. If the pen were the typical 



26 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

egg type, the progeny would show an increase over their parents in 
stamina and egg-production. I would also have shown him where the 
birds he was breeding from were deficient in the faculty that governs 
fecundity, or, in other words, which controls the function of reproduc- 
tion. 

Whittier, in "Maud Muller," says, "For of all sad words of tongue 
or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been." Yes, "it might 
have been." Professor Gowell might have lived to give many more 
years of aid to the poultry world and his tragic death been prevented; 
but he wrote the Doctor that he did not want me to come. He seemed 
determined to solve the problem himself, and no doubt would have done 
so if he had been as care-free from routine duties as a man in his position 
should have been; and I charge his untimely end to society. The men 
and women in our public institutions who are giving their lives for the 
benefit of humanity are not appreciated at their true value. We de- 
mand the full limit of routine duties, forgetting that it is impossible for 
a tired body to furnish sufficient nutriment to the brain to solve these 
intricate problems that are continually confronting them, and while 
we cause them to suffer mentally and physically individually, we cause 
ourselves to suffer collectively, by our parsimonious treatment of them. 

CHAPTER n. 



Preliminary Remarks, Giving Some Advice to the 
Reader. 

The writer is not one of the long-winded kind. I don't like to talk 
a long time in order to say a few words, or write a dozen pages where 
one will do as well, I believe in handing out the chunks of gold with 
as little dross as possible. I think the reader would rather receive 
the information I have to offer in one page than in a dozen; that he would 
rather discover the facts in a few feet than to be obliged to hunt over 
a hundred acres of literary space for the same information. For that 
reason I will make this work as brief as possible. I will be aided in my 
effort to do so by the fact that the theories offered in this work have 
been more or less demonstrated by the Government Experimental 
Stations of New Zealand and the States of Minnesota and California; 
also in the poultry plants of the five State hospitals (which contain 
thousands of hens) in the State of California, under the auspices of the 
State Board of Health and the physicians of the different hospitals. 
It might not be a difficult matter to mislead a few poultrymen on a 
subject that deals wholly with physiology and anatomy, but it would 
be absurd to think for a moment that one could deceive all the phy- 
sicians in five State insane hospitals. It seems a man who would still 
doubt would believe the world is flat, especially when he learns that a 
member of the State Board of Health told the writer that there was a 
difference of $1,500 in favor of using this system in one year, in one 
of the hospitals alone. 

^We commence in this chapter the unfolding of a method or test 
by which the reader can tell approximately the value of a hen and a 
male bird as a breeding proposition (and in the chapter on Breeding 
alone this book will be worth its weight in gold to the fanciers) 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 27 

egg-producer or a meat-producer. It is my desire to make the facts 
contained in this book so clear and the tests so easy of application that 
anyone can become proficient in the use of them in a short time. There- 
fore I have prepared a series of illustrations showing numerous types 
and conditions of fowls, also various other facts that may better be shown 
by pictures than by explanations alone. 

You will remember, no doubt, that you did not arrive at your 
present proficiency in reading in a day or two; that it took some little 
time, and there was a certain system or evolution in your study. You 
will find the same true of this method. There is a certain process that 
leads from one step to another, until you have covered the system, 
when by repeated study and practice you will become proficient and 
accomplish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an impossible 
task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in six hours, but the 
writer has done it. With sufficient help to hand me the hens, we graded 
(or, in other words, tested out) sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the 
State Hospital Poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, 
in March, 1910. "Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62," we hear you 
say. Our reply is, "It's practice." You can do the same. Go through 
the movements with every hen you pick up each day, and in a short 
time what at first is difficult will appear quite easy. 

For some years previous to 1912 there was great activity in the 
poultry industry, there having been no lack of poultry papers, farm 
papers, and magazines that for a nominal sum would give tuition in 
poultry culture. The ease of getting a theoretical knowledge of the 
business induced thousands to take it up who otherwise would not have 
thought of doing so. The apparent ease of conducting the business, 
the small amount of capital it was supposed to require, with the large 
and steady income it offered, were the will-o'-the-wisps that lured many 
to financial loss. I would warn my readers against rushing into the 
poultry business on a scale beyond their means without first obtaining 
a working knowledge of the same. With good stock, with the proper 
environment, a good market, and a working knowledge of the business, 
there is little danger of failure, if one is willing to do the work necessary 
on a poultry plant. It offers the most independent living for the smallest 
amount of capital of any business I know of. 

The requisites for success are the knowledge of how to be able to 
select the hen you need for any particular purpose, whether it is for 
eggs or for meat or fancy; whether the hen will be a paying proposition 
or not (this may depend on your market) ; whether she will be able to 
transmit her predominating characteristics to her offspring or not. 
Also you must be able to judge accurately the value of the male bird 
as to what you want him for and as to his ability to stamp his offspring 
with the desired qualities. All the above you can learn from this book. 
You should also know how to operate incubators; how to feed and care 
for little chicks; how your hen-houses should be built to suit your climate; 
how your growing pullets should be fed and housed; and the best way 
to feed to get the most eggs at the smallest cost, and how to feed and 
mate to get fertile eggs and vigorous chicks. There are numerous 
books published on all of these latter subjects that you can buy from 
the publishers of any poultry paper; so we do not take up the matter 
in this work; we give only what you cannot get elsewhere. 



2S THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Following is a series of half-tones and explanations representing 
the method we have used in instructing hundreds of poultrymen and 
women in California and other States and the managers of poultry 
plants in a number of State institutions in the State of California. 

CHAPTER III. 



The Various Steps in the Application of the Method of the 
Selection for Egg-Production. 

There are four characteristics that it is absolutely necessary for 
a hen to possess for the economical production of eggs or meat. The 
first is capacity, the second is condition, the third is type, and the fourth 
is constitutional vigor. The reader must bear the first three in mind 
in studying the next few chapters, as we will dispose of these before 
taking other matters into consideration. 

First. What is Capacity? — Capacity means the abdominal capacity 
to consume and assimilate the amount of food necessary to produce 
the number of eggs or amount of meat necessary to make the individual 
hen under consideration a paying proposition. We measure the ca- 
pacity of the hen by placing the hand across the abdomen between the 
end of the breast-bone, or keel, and the pelvic bones. The method will 
be shown in detail in Chapter IV. 

Second. Condition. — If the hen under consideration is an egg 
type, she must be kept in proper bodily condition by supplying her with 
the right quantity and quality of food that will furnish her with vitality 
material necessary to produce the number of eggs required of her. If 
the hen is in good condition, the flesh on the breast will be plump or 
practically flush with the breast-bone. Any variation in that condition 
will be shown by a shrinking away of the flesh of the breast, and will be 
followed by a corresponding shrinking of the abdomen. We show this 
by illustration and example later. 

Third. Type. — She must be of a type that everything she consumes 
is used in producing the desired effect, whether it is meat, whether it is 
eggs, or whether it is the maximum amount of eggs and meat that a 
dual-purpose hen can produce. According to our idea, the type of hen 
determines how she will dispose of the food she eats. The kind of type 
is shown by the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. The very thin 
bone indicates the egg type. As we pass into the dual-purpose and beef 
types we find the bones becoming thicker. We show these by illustrations 
and charts later. 

With the reader bearing the above three propositions in mind — 
namely, Capacity, Condition and Type — we will proceed to show how 
to judge the hen with the least amount of time and labor. 

Fig, 1 shows the interior of an open-front colony house, largely used 
around Petaluma. The roosts are connected to the house by hinges, so 
they can be hooked up out of the way while cleaning the house or ex- 
amining the hens, as in the present case. These houses are usually 
about 8 feet wide and 10 feet deep inside, with 4 feet posts and pitch 
roof. These houses are open front, with the exception of 18 inches on 
each side, as can be seen on one side, where hens are going out of the 
house into the catching-coop. When hens move too slow to suit, one 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



29 



or more persons (children will do) can take a grain sack by bottom 
side in one hand and top side in the other hand and go into the house 
holding sacks spread apart and moving gently close to the floor or ground 
and drive the hens into the catching-coop. When the coop is full, 
shut down the slide door on outside to prevent hens returning to the 
house. 




Fio. 1 — Showing hens in house. Note exit in the corner and catching crate 
placed just outside. They walk into this unconsciously, and this saves them from 
excitement and rough handling. As soon as the crate is filled the door is closed behind 
them. 

Some readers may have long houses, holding five hundred hens 
or more. In this case you will need a panel, run diagonally across 
the house to a point near the opening, where the hens go in and out of 
the house, as in Fig. 1}/^. This panel can be as long as required for 
the width of the house and made in sections, if desired, and should be 
6 feet or more high. 

Fig. 2 shows hens in the coop. When there are enough in, we 
shut down the slide door and proceed as in Fig. 3. 

Fig. 3. Note the slide door on top of the crate. We open this 
just enough to admit our arm while we grasp the hen firmly by both 
legs, so she can't twist around and injure herself. A slide door is better 
than a hinged door, as you can open the former just enough to take out 
the hen without so much danger of any of the other hens escaping. 
Be careful not to break wing or tail feathers or to injure the hen. 




Fig. IJ^ — Showing 2-inch wire panel placed diagonally across house holding 
2,000 hens. Panel frame and wire can be seen at left. This forces hens to go out 
at exit in the corner of house and they walk into the catching-crate on the outside of 
the exit. 




Fig. 2 — Showing hens in catching-crate. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



31 




Fig. 3 — Showing how hens are taken out of catching-crate. If they are taken 
out in this manner be sure to grasp both legs firmly and be careful not to break wing 
or tail feathers. 








Fig. 4 — Showing right and wrong way to hold arms. 



32 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 4. Note how the right arm is held in Fig. 4. This is not the 
right way, but it is the way most persons hold the left arm when they 
receive their first lesson. Now, note how the left arm is held; this is 
the right position, and it is difficult for me to teach students to hold 
their arms this way. I have to drill them repeatedly before they will 
do so. The hand which holds the hen by the legs should be at the 
height of the hip; this enables you to use the other hand in examining 
the hen for capacity with greater speed and accuracy. 

Fig. 5 shows how the writer holds a bird to ascertain its capacity 
by holding it this way. After long practice, he is enabled to inspect 
one in a few seconds by having three parties to hand him the birds 
and to take them from him. A small, light hen or pullet is best to prac- 
tice with. 




Fig. 5 — Showing how a hen may be held while testing capacity. 

Fig. 6 shows where the head of the bird should be. You will note 
that her eyes are covered up so she can't see, and that has a tendency 
to keep her quiet while you examine her. 

Fig. 7 gives an example of testing the capacity of a hen. The hand 
is placed on the abdomen between the two pelvic bones and the rear 
of the breast-bone; the left hand holding the legs is turned under enough 
to bring the thighs away from the point of the breast-bone, so that the 
thighs will not interfere with measuring the depth of the abdomen. 
The depth of the abdomen will vary with different hens; some will be 
one finger (a finger means the width of a finger the widest way; I have 
called it three-fourths of an inch) between the two pelvic bones (some- 
times called "lay" bones or "vent" bones) and the rear of the breast- 
bone. Some hens will be two fingers between the two pelvic;bones and 




Fig. 6 — Showing where the hen's head should be so she cannot see anything. 




Fig. 7 — Showing how to test capacity. 



34 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



the rear of the breast-bone, some will be three fingers, some will be four 
fingers, some will be five fingers, some will be six fingers, and occasionally 
one will be seven fingers between the two pelvic bones and the rear of 
the breast-bone. The depth of the abdomen indicates the capacity or 
the ability of the bird to consume and assimilate food, and it applies 
to all breeds, except that, everything else being equal, the longer-bodied 
hen, having more room for the digestive machinery, would have some 
advantage over the shorter-bodied hen. 



I 




Fig. 8 — Showing how to test condition. The legs of the hen are drawn upward, 
so that you can see the breast. The condition is tested by placing the thumb and 
forefinger about K inch from the front of the breast-bone. Figs. 20, 21 and 22 show 
the method in detail. 

Fig. 8. This indicates how to hold a hen when you examine her 
for condition. This is one of the most difficult and serious problems 
a poultryman has to deal with. To illustrate, I will cite one case out 
of hundreds that have come under my observation. A gentleman 
wrote me to call on him, as he was having trouble with his hens. When 
I arrived at his place, he told me that when he fed his hens well he got 
lots of eggs, but some of his hens died; then when he did not feed them 
so well they did not lay so many eggs, but none of them died. He said 
he had repeated this a number of times with the same results. He said 
the ones that died were as fat as butter. I picked up one of the hens; 
she was in prime condition for the market. I picked up another one; 
she was very thin. I examined all his hens. I found he had, like a 
great many poultrymen, three distinct types of hens: the egg type, the 
dual-purpose type, and the meat type. As he had fancy birds in all 




Fig. 9 — Showing one movement that has proved an aid in testing type. The 
right hand is placed under the breast of the hen to steady her while the legs are drawn 
downward to bring the hen into position so that she may be examined for type (as in 
cut 10). 




Fig. 10 — Showing another movement that has proved an aid in testing type. 
The legs are drawn well under the hen, thus throwing the pelvic bones forward. The 
right hand is then removed and used to examine the thickness of the pelvic bones 
(Fig. 11.) 



36 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



the different types, he did not want to dispose of any of his flock, so I 
segregated them into three divisions: the egg type, the dual-purpose 
type, and the meat type. After that he fed the egg type all the grain 
they could clean up in the scratching-shed and kept a balance-ration 
of dry ground feed before them all the time. The dual-purpose hens 
were fed all the grain they could clean up in the scratching-shed, with 
a small amount of dry ground feed each day. The meat type hens 
were fed a smaller amount of grain in the scratching-shed, with a couple 
of feeds each week of dry ground mash-^just enough to keep them in 
condition. After this he had no more trouble with his hens not laying 
in the proper season and dying from being too fat. He would occasionally 
pick up hens in the different pens and note their condition and feed them 
accordingly. He told me later that before he had taken the lessons he 
had been working completely in the dark, but now he understood the 
matter thoroughly and knew what to do. 

Fig. 9. After examining the hen as in Fig. 8, place the hand as 
in Fig. 9, and hold right hand firmly enough to prevent her from slipping 
down. 

Fig. 10. Then move the left hand down as in Fig. 10, and hold 
left hand firm enough to keep her in place while removing right hand. 

Type. 
Fig. 11. Now brush feathers away from vent with back of hand 
and part the feathers near^pelvic bones with fingers. Then grasp end 
of pelvic bone so that it comes flush with outside of fingers as in Figs. 




Fig. 11 — Shows method of testing types. The thumb and forefinger are 
placed one on each side of the pelvic bone [so that you may estimate the thickness 
of the same, including flesh, fat, gristle, etc. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 37 

11 and 24. This indicates the Type of the bird. Some will be one- 
sixteenth (Vie) of an inch thick, including the flank as held between 
the thumb and forefinger, as seen in Figs. 11 and 24, and will vary all 
the way up to one and a quarter (IM) inches, including bone, gristle, 
fat, and flank, as seen in Fig. 31. 

The reader is aware by this time that we are in the chapter per- 
taining to Type, the last of. the three classes that it is necessary to 
divide poultry into in order to make a scientific classification to enable 
one to arrive at the approximate value of the "Individual Bird" as an 
Egg or as a Meat proposition (and without any regard as to its value 
as a breeder, which will be shown later). I wish to repeat here that 
Type is controlled wholly by temperament. We must select the tem- 
perament or combinations of temperaments that suit our purpose, and 
then, with the desired capacity and by scientific feeding, so as to keep 
the subject in proper condition, poultry culture will become more of 
a science with the majority of poultrymen than it is at present. In 
order to prepare the reader for what is to follow, I will divide poultry 
into three distinct classes as to temperaments. 

The hen that will produce the largest amount of eggs with the small- 
est amount of meat possible for her capacity is of the nervous tem- 
perament. The hen which uses one-half of her vitality in producing 
eggs and the other half of her vitality in producing meat — in other 
words, the dual-purpose hen — is a combination of both the sanguine 
and bilious temperaments and is called "the hen with the sanguine- 
bilious temperament." The hen that produces the largest amount of 
flesh and the smallest amount of eggs consistent with her capacity is 
of the lymphatic temperament. 

In a fowl all the different temperaments and their different degrees 
of combinations are indicated by the pelvic bones. In the horse they 
are indicated largely by the breed. The Arabian, the ideal running 
and trotting horse, is a good type of the nervous temperament, the Coach 
horse is a good type of the sanguine-bilious temperament, and the 
Clyde is a good type of the lymphatic temperament. In cattle we 
have a good example of the nervous temperament in the Jersey, and 
of the lymphatic in the beef family of Durham, also Hereford and 
Polled Angus, while the Holstein and Ayrshire cattle are good types 
of the sanguine-bilious combined. 

I have made this deviation so I could offer to my poultry friends 
this thought: that there are certain laws in nature that have no regard 
for our theories, and the better we understand these laws, the less liable 
we are to make mistakes. 

CHAPTER IV. 



Capacity. 

In the preceding chapters we have given the reader an idea of th€; 
method we use in judging the value of a hen for the purpose we wish 
her for. In the succeeding chapters we will explain the method in detail. 

First, we will take up "Capacity." 

Fig. 12 shows a hen with only one finger capacity {% of an inch) 
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 

OH— 3 



38 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 13 shows a hen with two fingers capacity (1^^ inches) between 
the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 

Fig. 14 shows a hen with three fingers capacity (2}4 inches) be- 
tween the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 




Fig. 12— One-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) This indicates a hen of very small 
capacity to consume and assimilate food. She never can be a large eater hence of 
not much value. ' 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



39 



Fig. 15 shows a hen with four fingers capacity (3 inches) between 
the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 

Fig. 16 shows a hen with five fingers capacity (3^4 inches) between 
the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 




Fig. 13 — Two-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Slightly larger capacity than the 
preceding, but still of relatively small ability to consume food. 



40 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 17 shows a hen with six fingers capacity (43^ inches) between 
the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 




Fig. 14 — Three-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating very good ability to 
consume and assimilate food. We find hens that lay as high as 180 eggs in their first 
laying year in this class, depending on the type. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



41 



NOTE: The tests for type and capacity cannot be applied to 
young pullets with any degree of accuracy. These tests cannot be 
properly made until the pullet has laid at least one clutch of eggs. A 
pullet must obtain her natural shape and be fully developed before 
you really know what she is. These two tests can best be made on yearly 




Fig. 15 — Four-finger abdomen."' (Capacity.) A hen of very large capacity to 
consume and assimilate food. We find 220-egg hens in this class, provided they have 
the right type. 



42 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 



hens. This is where many poultrymen fail in making their tests and 
it is why many of them condemn this system. It is absolutely accurate 
in 99% of the cases if properly and sensibly SLppMed.— Publishers. 




Fig. 16— Five-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of still larger ability to con- 
sume,,food than the preceding. We find 250-egg hens in this class if of the right type. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



43 




Fig. 17— Six-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating extremely large capacity 
to consume and assimilate food. She may be a 280-egg type hen or a heavy beef type 
hen. 



CHAPTER V. 



Condition, 

We next come to "Condition." 
Fig. 18 shows a hen in very poor condition. 

Fig. 19 shows a hen in perfect condition, as indicated by her full 
breast. 



44 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 18 — Showing hen in very poor condition. The feathers being plucked away 
shows the actual condition of the flesh. We call a hen in this condition "three fingers 
out of condition," which indicates that her abdomen has shrunken up three fingers. 
If she now has a capacity of one finger, when in good condition she would be four fingers 
abdomen; if she has a capacity of two fingers now, she would have five fingers capacity 
when in good condition. 

Fig. 20 is somewhat thinner, as indicated by breast-bone. We call 
her one finger out of condition. 

The degrees of condition show the amount of shrinkage in ab- 
dominal depth. One finger out of condition shows she has shrunken 




Fig. 19 — Showing hen in good condition. You will note that the flesh is even 
with^the breast -bone. This hen would show her normal abdominal depth when exam- 
ined. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



45 



one finger in depth of abdomen; two fingers out of condition shows she 
has shrunken two fingers in depth of abdomen, three fingers out of 
condition shows she has shrunken three fingers in depth of abdomen. 




Fig. 20 — Showing hen one finger out of condition. You will note that the flesh 
appears slightly shrunken away from the breast-bone. When the thumb and forefinger 
are placed as in the cut, about 3^ inch from the front of the breast-bone, the flesh will be 
below the breast-bone, as shown by the mark on finger in Fig. 23. This would indicate 
that the hen was one finger less capacity. If three-fingers now, she would be four fingers 
capacity when in condition, etc. 



Fig. 21 is still thinner, as reader can see by the breast-bone, 
call her two fingers out of condition. 



We 




Fig. 21 — Showing hen two fingers out of condition. The flesh is shrunken away 
from the breast-bone to about the depth indicated by the middle line on the finger in 
Fig. 23, which is about the middle of the first joint. This shows that she is two fingers 
less in abdominal depth than when in good condition. 

Fig. 22 is still thinner. This we call three fingers out of condition, 
and is about as thin as a hen usually gets, if there is any chance for her 
ever being of any use. 



46 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 22 — Showing hen three fingers out of condition. This hen would be three 
fingers less in abdominal depth than when in good condition. 




Fig. 22a — This shows you just where to place your finger on the keel or breast- 
bone in order to measure or determine the condition of the hen. In order to properly 
determine this fact, place your finger about 1 inch back from the front point of the keel 
or breast-bone, as you see illustrated above. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



47 



Fig. 23 shows about how the first joint of an index finger must 
be divided up to determine the three degrees of condition. The first 
joint of the index finger is divided into three parts, each hne or division 
representing what we call "one finger" in measuring or determining 
condition. If a hen had a three-finger abdomen or capacity and was 
one finger out of condition, that would mean that she would have a 
four-finger abdomen or capacity if she was in condition. 




Fig. 23 — Showing where the imaginary lines should be drawn on the first joint of 
the forefinger in order to judge the condition of the hen or pullet. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Type. 



We now come to "Type." This is indicated by the thickness of 
the pelvic bones, together with the flesh, fat, gristle, and cartilage on 
same. (See page 17.) 

Fig. 24 shows a hen whose pelvic bones are one-sixteenth (Vie) of 
an inch thick, that is about as thick as a piece of cardboard that paper 
boxes are made of, and the reader must bear in mind that the measure- 
ment of the pelvic bone does not mean the bone alone, with the skin, 
flesh, gristle, and fat scraped off, as some may suppose, but with all the 
above included. 

Fig. 25 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-eighth (Vs) of an inch 
thick. 

Fig. 26 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-quarter (34) of an inch 
thick. 



48 



TdE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig, 27 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-eighths ('/g) of an 
inch thick. 




Fig. 24 — Vi6-inch pelvic bone. Indicating a typical egg-type hen, which means 
that virtually all the food she consumes above that necessary for bodily maintenance 
goes toward the production of eggs. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 
36 eggs in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, she would lay about 180, 
and if of six-finger abdomen, she might lay 280 eggs in her first laying year. 




Fig. 25 — Vs-inch pelvic bone; indicating egg type, but not so typical as the preced- 
ing. If of one- finger abdomen, she would lay about 32 eggs in her first laying year; 
if of three-finger abdomen, about 166 eggs; and if of six-finger abdomen, about 265 
eggs in her first laying year. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 



49 




' Pig 26— 1/4-inch pelvic bone; indicating a slightly more beefy hen than the preced- 
ing types, but still of the egg type. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 24 
eggs in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, about 138 eggs; and if ot six- 
finger abdomen, about 235 eggs in her first laying year. 




Fig 27— 3/8-inch pelvic'bone; indicating that the hen uses a larger proportion 
of the food she consumes in making flesh and less in the production of eggs. A one- 
finger abdomen hen would lay about 16 eggs; a three-finger abdomen hen, about 110 
eggs and a six-finger" abdomen hen, about 205 eggs in the first laying year. 



50 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 28 — J/2-inch pelvic bone; indicating a still more beefy hen than the preceding 
— that is, a still larger proportion of the food consumed is used to make flesh and less 
to produce eggs. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 8 eggs; and if of three- 
finger abdomen, she would lay about 82 eggs; while if of six-finger abdomen, she would 
lay about 175 eggs in the first laying year. 




Fig. 29 — %-inch pelvic bone. A pretty good specimen of the beef type. We 
find no two-finger abdomen hens that have pelvic bones so thick, because they cannot 
consume enough food with such pelvic bones. A two-finger abdomen hen is virtually 
a non-layer; a three-finger abdomen hen will lay about 24 eggs, and a six-finger abdomen 
hen will lay about 115 eggs in the first laying year. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



51 




Fig. 30 — 1-inch pelvic bone. A very beefy type. Almost all the food consumed 
above that required for bodily maintenance is used in the making of flesh. We find 
them in the hens that have abdomens from four to six fingers deep. They lay very few 
eggs. 




Fig. 31 — IJ^-inch pelvic bone. This indicates that the hen is of the typical beef 
type. She is an enormous feeder, hence only found in hens of about six-finger capacity. 
She will lay practically no eggs. 



52 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 28 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-half (3^) of an inch 
thick. 

Fig. 29 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-quarters (^) of an 
inch thick. 

Fig. 30 shows a hen with pelvic bones one (1) inch thick. 

Fig. 31 shows a hen with pelvic bones one and one-quarter (]i^ 
inches thick. 




Fig. 32 — Crooked pelvic bone. "A, A," Position No. 1 



Now, please bear in mind that everything shown and related here 
refers to Leghorns and applies to other breeds as well, only in a lesser 
degree — so small that it amounts to almost nothing, as I will show later. 

A, A, Fig. 32, shows the pelvic bones with flesh cleaned off. 

B, B, Fig. 33, shows the pelvic bones with flesh stripped off farther 
and painted black so they will show up better. You will notice that 
the pelvic bones in Fig. 32 and Fig. 33 are crooked. The majority of 
poultry have more or less crooked pelvic bones. Sometimes the bones 
come close together, which is an obstruction in laying, and should be 
bred away from as much as possible. 

Fig. 34 shows perfect pelvic bones. In this torm they are very 
easy to take between the thumb and finger- also, when the hen wants 
to lay the vent has a chance to failed own between the pelvic bones, 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



53 



which allows the egg to be delivered without straining on the part 
of the hen. Not every poultryman, but every poultrywoman has seen 
cases where a hen has gone on the nest and after a couple of hours com- 
menced to cackle her head off. Presently we hear the whole flock take 
up the chorus, and going to see what the trouble is, we find the hens 




Fig. 33 — -Crooked pelvic bone, "B, B," Position No. 2. Hens with bones curved 
like this will lay about 20 per cent less than hens of the same type and capacity with 
straight pelvic bones, as in figure 34. 

holding an "Old Maids' Convention" and declaring they will never lay 
another egg, it hurts them so much to do so. On examining them, we 
find the pelvic bones so crooked they come together like the horns of a 
Jersey cow, and when the hens lay, instead of the vent dropping down 
between the pelvic bones, allowing the egg to be released in an easy 
manner in a few minutes after the hen goes on the nest, the egg is forced 
to be delivered between the pelvic bones and tail bone, thus prolonging 
the agony of the hen sometimes for hours, when, if she was built right, 
as in Fig. 34, she would be relieved of the egg without pain in a few 
minutes. And instead of wasting vitality in getting relieved of the egg, 
she would be rustling around for material to build another one, and thus 
add at least 20 per cent to her egg-producing value. This matter of 
crooked pelvic bones is more frequent in some breeds than in others, 
and is a serious matter that is very easily remedied by breeding only 
from birds with the straightest pelvic bones, especially looking after 
the male birds, as one male bird with crooked pelvic bones will trans- 
mit this defect to all of his daughters. 



54 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



When I came to Petaluma, I found whole flocks of thousands of 
hens with crooked bones; now they are very rare. The poultry breeders 
soon caught on to my straight-and-thin-pelvic-bone idea; and I think 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should recognize 
my services in relieving millions of hens of the agony of parturition. 

The reader will please bear in mind that Fig. 34 represents 100 
per cent pelvic bone and holds the same relation to pelvic bones in gen- 
eral that a bird that scores 100 in the showroom holds to all other high- 
class birds. 

A 250-egg type cock bird or cockerel with pelvic bones like Fig. 
34 would be of inestimable value. The writer has cock birds like the 
above that he would not part with for any money, for the reason that 
it would take several years' breeding to produce their equals. 



I 




Fig. 34 — Most perfect pelvic bones, "C, C." Hens with pelvic bones like this 
will lay about 20 per cent more than those having bones like Fig. 33. 



If the reader has male birds whose pelvic bones are far enough 
apart that he can grasp the ends with thumb and finger when measuring 
the thickness, he should be satisfied until he can do better. 
- So long as the pelvic bones are comparatively straight after leaving 
the frame and do not curve abruptly toward the ends, the birds may be 
used as breeders, with the assurance that some of the offspring will 
show a wonderful improvement in this respect. Figs. 32, 33-. and 34 
are extreme cases. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



55 




FIG. 33— MEASURING THE THICKNESS OF THE PELVIC BONES 
There is little or no actual difference in the thickness of the pelvic bones in differ- 
ent hens, but there is a great difference in the apparent thickness, which is produced by 
the fat underlying the skin and surrounding the bones. The good layer on the reader's 
left has comparatively little fat and the skin is thin and pliable to that there is 
a limited amount of tissue between the bone and the finger. In the poor layer on the 
right, the skin is thick, with a heavy layer of fat underneath, thus making the pelvic 
bones appear more than twice as thick as in a good layer. Photo from New Jersey 
Experiment Station. 




FIG. 61— HIGH AND LOW PRODUCING RHODE ISLAND REDS 
Posed to show difference in spread of pelvic bones. The high-producing hen is 
shown on the reader's left in the illustration. Photo from Storrs Experiment Station. 
Note the large moist vent of the good layer on the left. 



56 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The First Laying Year. 

What is meant by "the first laying year?" All old poultrymen 
know what the above means, and I have no doubt some of my readers 
may be impatient with me for explaining little things that are so familiar 
to them, but they will remember that poultry parlance is not all con- 
tained in the dictionary, and a great deal of the contents of this book 
may be Greek to the beginners in the poultry business who will read 
this work. For this reason I cannot be too plain in my language or too 
careful of details in explaining matters. The first laying year has 
nothing whatever to do with the age of a hen or pullet. I have had 
hens that had passed their first laying year when they were sixteen 
months old. On the other hand, I have seen hens that were over four 
years old that had not commenced on their first laying year. The hen 
that had passed her first laying year when she was sixteen months old 
had commenced to lay when she was four months old, while the hens 
that were over four years old had never laid an egg. So the reader 
will see the first laying year commences with the first egg a pullet lays 
and ends one year from that date, when her second laying year com- 
mences. Some pullets will commence to lay at four months old, while 
others of exactly the same type, fed and cared for in the same manner, 
will not lay before they are eight months old, owing to different en- 
vironment. Everything else being equal, poultry will develop faster 
on a warm, dry, sandy soil than they will on a black, damp, heavy soil, 
and they will mature much sooner in a good corn country, where it is 
warm in the shade and warm at night, than they will in poor corn 
country, where it is cool at night and cool in the daytime in the shade. 
I have raised Leghorn pullets that were fully developed in size and form 
and laid a full-sized egg when they were four months old. 

It can be done in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and 
Minnesota, and in parts of California, where the nights are so warm 
that one can sleep comfortable under a sheet only, but not where you 
have to cuddle under a lot of blankets on a summer night to keep warm. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The Selection of Types. 

If the reader has practiced handling a hen as in Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 
10, and 11, we will proceed with a lesson in judging hens as to the number 
of eggs they will lay their first laying year. 

We will look for a small hen to commence with, as she will be easier 
to handle. Having our hen, we will hold her as nearly as we can as 
in Fig. 5, and try to have her head as in Fig. 6, so she can see nothing. 
She will then be easier to handle. Place hand across her abdomen, 
as in Fig. 7. She may be a one-finger abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. 
Then hold her as in Fig. 8. Her breast may be as in Fig. 19; if so, she 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 57 

will be in good condition. Next go through movements as in Figs. 9 
and 10 and hold her and examine her pelvic bone as in Fig. 11. Her 
pelvic bone may be one-sixteenth (1/16) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. 
Now look on Chart 1. Your hen is one-finger abdomen, in good condi- 
tion, and her pelvic bone is one-sixteenth (1/16) of an inch thick. You 



1/16 pelv 
1/8 pelv 
3/16 pelv 
1/4 pelv 
5/16 pelv 
3/8 pelv 
7/16 pelv 
1/2 pelv 
9/16 pelv 
5/8 pelv 



CHART 1. 

One-finger Abdomen 

c bone 36 eggs 

c bone 32 eggs 

c bone 28 eggs 

c bone 24 eggs 

c bone 20 eggs 

c bone 16 eggs 

c bone 12 eggs 

c bone 8 eggs 

c bone 4 eggs 

c bone eggs 



will see that she is a 36-egg type hen. That means that if this hen is 
one of a large number on a commercial poultry plant, she is capable of 
laying three dozen eggs her first laying year, if she is fed and cared for 
properly, barring accidents and disease. So we will call her a 36-egg 
type hen. 

We will drop this hen and take another from the crate and go 
through the same movements. Hold her as in Fig. 5 or Fig. 7, with 
head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one-finger abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
12), then examine for condition, as in Fig. 8. Her condition may be 
good, as in Fig. 19; then hold as in Figs. 9 and 10, and measure thickness 
of pelvic bone, as in Fig. 11, Her pelvic bone may be three-eighths 
e/s) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 27; in that case she would read like this: 
One-finger abdomen; good condition; three-eighths (^/s) pelvic bone. 
Now, look on Chart 1, and you will find she is a 16-egg type hen. 

We will drop her and take another from the crate, and go through 
the same movements as before. This hen may be a one-finger abdomen 
hen also, in good condition, with pelvic bone }/i inch thick, as in Fig. 
28, and by consulting Chart 1 we find she is an 8-egg type hen. 

We drop her and take another from the crate. She may be a 
hen with a one-finger abdomen, as in Fig. 12. When we examine her 
condition we find she is like Fig. 20, which indicates that she is one 
finger out of condition (the subject of "Condition" is explained in Chap- 
ter V.) ; her pelvic bone may be Vie of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. This 
hen will read different from the other hen that was Vie pelvic bone. 
This hen is out of condition. She may have been in condition up to 
a few weeks previous to our examination of her; the cause of her lack 
of condition may be improper food or care, or both, or it may be due 
to moulting, or she may have been broody. In any of these cases it 
would not be the hen's fault that she was out of condition, and she 
should not be held responsible for it. Her condition indicates that there 
is something wrong, and it's up to her owner to right the wrong, and 
when we do right the wrong, the hen will come back into condition, and 
her abdomen will then measure two fingers instead of one finger. We 



58 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

must, therefore, read her as a two- finger abdomen hen, Vie-inch pelvic 
bone, when, by looking on Chart 2, we find her capacity would be 96 
eggs her first laying year, if we kept her in condition. 

We will drop her, and take another hen out of the crate. This 
hen may be a one-finger abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. When we examine 
her for condition, we find her as in Fig. 21; this indicates that she is 
two fingers out of condition; her pelvic bone may be Vie of an inch. 
Under her present condition, she might lay 36 eggs her first laying year, 
whereas, if she were kept in good condition, she would have a three- 
finger abdomen. She might lay 180 eggs. 

We will drop this hen and take up another one. She may be two 
fingers abdomen and her breast-bone may be as in Fig. 19. Her pelvic 
bone may be Vie of an inch. We would read her as a two-finger-ab- 
domen hen in good condition, pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick. We 
will look on Chart 2 at Vie-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 96-egg 
type hen. 

We will drop her and take another from the crate. She may be 
two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 21, 
with pelvic bones 34 of an inch thick. She would read two fingers 
abdomen and two fingers out of condition. She would be four fingers 

CHART 2. 
Two-finger Abdomen. 



Vie pelv 
Vb pelv 
Vie pelv: 
V4 pelv 
Vie pelv: 
^/s pelv 
Vie pelv 
V2 pelv 
Vie pelv 
Vs pelv 
"/16 pelv 
V4 pelv: 



c bone 96 eggs 

c bone 87 eggs 

c bone 78 eggs 

c bone 69 eggs 

c bone 60 eggs 

c bone 51 eggs 

c bone 42 eggs 

c bone 33 eggs 

c bone 24 eggs 

c bone 16 eggs 

c bone 6 eggs 

c bone eggs 



abdomen if in condition, and 34-inch pelvic bones. Being a four-finger- 
abdomen hen (if in condition), we will look on Chart 4 at 34-inch pelvic 
bone, and find she is a 175-egg type hen. We will drop her. 

Take another. She may be a two-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
13, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones ^ of an inch 
thick, as in Fig. 29. She would read two fingers abdomen , good condi- 
tion, ^-inch pelvic bones. We will look on Chart 2 for ^-inch pelvic 
bone, and find this hen will lay nothing. This does not mean that she 
is an absolutely barren hen, that she will never lay an egg (I will explain 
this when we get to the six-finger-abdomen hen) ; she may lay a few, 
perhaps half a dozen, in the spring when the crows lay; but as a com- 
mercial proposition she will have no more value than the hen that never 
laid an egg. Everything she consumes goes to the making of flesh, 
except what she uses in bodily maintenance. 

We will drop her and take another. She may be a three-finger- 
abdomen hen, as in Fig. 14. Her condition may be as in Fig. 1 9, with 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



59 



pelvic bones as in Fig. 24. She would read three fingers abdomen; 
in good condition Vie-inch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 3 at Vie- 
inch pelvic bone, and find that this hen is a 180-egg type. 



Vi6 pelv 
'/« pelv 
Vi6 pelv 
V4 pelv 
V16 pelv 
*/» pelv 
V16 pelv 
Vj pelv 
V16 pelv 
V* pelv 
^Vi6 pelv 
V4 pelv 
^Vi6 pelv 
^/s pelv 



CHART 3. 

Three-finger Abdomen. 

c bone 180 eggs 

c bone 166 eggs 

c bone 152 eggs 

c bone 138 eggs 

c bone 124 eggs 

c bone 110 eggs 

c bone 96 eggs 

c bone 82 eggs 

c bone 68 eggs 

c bone 54 eggs 

c bone 40 eggs 

c bone .- 26 eggs 

c bone 12 eggs 

c bone eggs 



We will drop her and take another. She may be another three- 
finger-abdomen hen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 
19, and her pelvic bone may be 3^-inch thick, like Fig. 28. She would 
read three fingers abdomen; good condition; 3^-inch pelvic bone. We 
will look on Chart 3 at 3^-inch pelvic bone, and find this hen is an 82- 
egg type hen. 

We will take another hen. She may be a three-finger abdomen, 
like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 19, and her pelvic 
bone may be 34 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29. We will read her as a 
three-finger-abdomen hen; in good condition; ^-inch pelvic bone. We 
will look on Chart 3 at ^-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 26-egg type 
hen. 

We will pick up another hen. She may be a three-finger capacity, 
as in Fig. 14; she may be three fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 22, 
and her pelvic bones may be Vie of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. We would 
read this hen as a three-finger abdomen; three fingers out of condition, 
and Vi6-inch pelvic bone. When a hen is three fingers out of condition 
she is in a serious way. She may have been sitting or laying heavily 
and have been underfed. In either case, good care and plenty of the 
right kind of feed will bring her back into condition, provided she has 
not contracted tuberculosis (going light) or some other wasting disease. 
I will cite two cases out of hundreds that have come under my obser- 
vation. 

One was a Barred Rock hen that I intended to set on duck eggs; 
she was six fingers abdomen, in good condition when I put her on the 
nest, and V«-inch pelvic bones; that indicated that she was a 235-egg 
type hen. She was on the nest two weeks before the duck eggs arrived 
and four weeks on the duck's eggs, making six weeks setting. Owing to 
stress of other work, and being confined in an out-of-the-way place, 
she was somewhat neglected, and when the ducklings were hatched she 
was three fingers abdomen and three fingers out of condition, thus 



60 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

indicating a 138-egg type hen. Six weeks later she was laying, and had 
developed to six fingers abdomen, which was her normal condition. 

Another case was where a gentleman was in a class that took in- 
structions. After the close of the meeting he brought a hen that was 
three fingers out of condition. He said she was his best hen, and asked 
me how many eggs she would lay. She was three fingers abdomen, 
three fingers out of condition, and Vie-inch pelvic bone. Her head and 
actions indicated perfect health. I told him she might lay 180 eggs 
her first laying year, if her condition had been the same as it is at the 
present time; but if she was my hen I thought I might be able to make 
her lay 280 eggs. "You don't feed her half enough." He replied 
"That is the only hen I have that lays a white egg. I got her when 
a pullet, before she commenced to lay. She has been laying about 
a year and has laid 176 eggs. I had a small lot of hens at the time that 
were so fat they were dying, and I cut down their feed and have fed them 
sparingly ever since, so they would not get too fat and die." I went to 
his place, and found he had three types of hens: the typical meat type 
(one w'th pelvic bones I'/s inch thick), some with pelvic bones ^- 
inch thick, and this hen that laid the white eggs, whose pelvic bones 
were '/le of an inch thick. I told him to segregate his hens into three 
lots, and feed them according to their type. Give the egg-type hens all 
the grain they could clean up each day in the scratching-shed, with a 
dry balanced mash before them all the time; the dual-purpose hens 
should be fed all the grain they wished to scratch for, with an occasional 
mash, and the beef- type hens should be fed what grain they could clean 
up in the scratching-shed in about an hour. The litter should be good 
and deep in all cases. I did not mention charcoal, grit, shells, and green 
stuff, as that is not my business. Every man who takes a poultry paper 
knows that part of the business, and every person who keeps poultry 
should take a poultry paper in order to keep posted on current poultry 
topics. 

The gentleman wrote me over a year later that he had succeeded 
in bringing the hen up to normal condition, as in Fig. 19, but after 
laying awhile she went back to five fingers abdomen and one finger out 
of condition, and had laid 238 eggs her next laying year. 

We will now take another hen. She may be a four-finger abdomen, 
as in Fig. 15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may 
be Vi6 of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. She would read four fingers 
abdomen; good condition; Vie-inch pelvic bone. If we consult Chart 
4, we will find she is a 220-egg type hen. 

The next hen may be also four fingers abdomen, as in Fig. 15, 
in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones 3^ inch, as in Fig. 28. 
She would read four fingers abdomen; in good condition; 3^-inch pelvic 
bones. We will see by Chart 4 that this is a 115-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; condition good; 
pelvic bones 1 inch thick. We would read her as a four-finger abdomen; 
condition good; pelvic bones 1 inch. If we look on Chart 4 at 1-inch 
pelvic bones, we will find this hen will lay approximately nothing. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen, one finger out of 
condition, V<i-inch pelvic bone. She would mdicate a 205-egg type 
hen under her present condition, but we would read her four fingers 
abdomen, one finger out of condition; that would mean a five-finger- 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



61 



abdomen hen if in condition, '/s-inch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 
5 at V* pelvic bone, and find she is a 235-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 16; 
she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may be 



Vl6 

Vl6 
74 

'A 

Vl6 
V4 

Vs 
^Vl6 



pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 



CHART 4. 
Four-finger Abdomen. 

c bone 220 eggs 

c bone 205 eggs 

c bone 190 eggs 

c bone 175 eggs 

c bone 160 eggs 

c bone 145 eggs 

c bone 130 eggs 

c bone 115 eggs 

c bone 100 eggs 

c bone 85 eggs 

c bone 70 eggs 

c bone 55 eggs 

c bone 40 eggs 

c bone 25 eggs 

c bone 40 eggs 



1-in. pelvic bone eggs 



V:6 of an inch, as in Fig. 24. She will read five fingers abdomen; con- 
dition good; pelvic bones Vie-inch. We look on Chart 5 at Vie-inch 
pelvic bone, and find she is a 250-egg type hen. 



CHART 5. 
Five-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 250 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 235 eggs 

pelvic bone 220 eggs 

pelvic bone 205 eggs 

pelvic bone 190 eggs 

pelvic bone 175 eggs 

pelvic bone 160 eggs 

pelvic bone 145 eggs 

pelvic bone 130 eggs 

pelvic bone 115 eggs 

pelvic bone 100 eggs 

pelvic bone 85 eggs 

pelvic bone 70 eggs 

pelvic bone 55 eggs 

pelvic bone 40 eggs 

1-in. pelvic bone 25 eggs 

lVi6 pelvic bone 10 eggs 

iVs pelvic bone eggs 



Vl6 

74 

Vl6 

V8 

Vl6 

7« 

Vl6 

Vs 

^7l6 
V4 

Vs 

Vl6 



62 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 16; 
she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may be 
^/s-inch thick, as in Fig. 27. We would read her as five fingers abdomen; 
good condition, and ^/s-inch pelvic bones. Chart 5 would show us that 
she was a 175-egg type hen. 

The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen; condition good; 
pelvic bones 1 inch thick. She would read five fingers abdomen; good 
condition; 1-inch pelvic bones. The chart would indicate that she was 
a 25-egg type hen. 

The next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 17; 
she may be in good condition, and her pelvic bones may be I'A inches 
thick as in Fig. 31. I hear the reader say, "What breed of a hen has 
pelvic bones as thick as that? or do you mean that both of her pelvic 
bones are 1'/* inches thick, counting them both together?" No; I 
mean that each one of her pelvic bones is 13^ inches thick. Counting 
the bone, gristle, fat, and flesh (flank), both of the pelvic bones would 
be 2^ inches thick. When we speak of pelvic bones being so thick, 
we always mean one of them. And as to breed, this hen is a Single 
Comb White Leghorn; she is the typical beef type. You will see by 
Chart 6 that she will lay practically nothing; and here I will explain 
this matter. 

CHART 6. 

Six-finger Abdomen. 

Nervous Temperament. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 280 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 265 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 250 eggs 

V* pelvic bone 235 eggs 

Vi6 pelvic bone 220 eggs 

Sanguine Temperament. 

»/» pelvic bone 205 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 190 eggs 

V2 pelvic bone 175 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 160 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 145 eggs 

Bilious Temperament. 
"/16 pelvic bone 130 eggs 

^ U pelvic bone 115 eggs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 100 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 85 eggs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 70 eggs 

Lymphatic Temperament. 

1-in. pelvic bone 55 eggs 

IV16 pelvic bone 40 eggs 

iVs pelvic bone 25 eggs 

IV16 pelvic bone 10 eggs 

IV4 pelvic bone eggs 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 63 

A man once brought me a two-and-a-half-year-old hen that he had 
trap-nested for two years, and asked me to tell him how many eggs 
she had laid her first laying-year. I told him she had never laid an egg. 
Her abdomen was six fingers, she was in good condition, and her pelvic 
bones were lV< inches thick. He cautioned me to be careful, as he had 
always trap-nested his hens, and his record showed how many eggs they 
had laid. I replied, "If that is the case, her record shows that she has 
never laid an egg." He said no more then, but brought me another hen, 
asking me how many she would lay. I examined her for capacity. I 
found she was a six-finger-abdomen hen; her condition Was good; her 
pelvic bones were Vie of an inch thick; they were both alike as to thick- 
ness. I questioned him as to how he had fed her, and if she had been 
sick her first laying year. As lie is one of the best breeders in the United 
States, I could depend on him knowing what he was talking about. I 
asked him then to take off his hat. I could see by the shape of his head 
he was a strictly honest man. I then told him that I had never raised 
that breed of hens, but if it was a Leghorn, it might lay 280 eggs its 
first year, and if a Plymouth Rock, it might lay 270. He said her trap- 
nested record showed she laid 276 eggs from the time she commenced to 
lay in her pullet year until she had laid one year. "That's all right," 1 
replied; "but what about the first hen we examined?" "We have never 
found any in the trap-nest from her," he said, "but she might be in the 
habit of laying in the yard." And as he offered $1,000 for her, he was 
very anxious to get some chickens from her. I explained to him that 
while most typical beef hens could be made to lay a very small number 
of eggs in the spring when the crows laid, by feeding them a little lean 
meat and shrunken wheat and bran on- a grass plot of white clover (if 
the blossoms of the white clover are clipped off), that his hen could not 
be made to lay, as she was a barren hen, as indicated by the rigid cord 
that connected both of the pelvic bones together, thus indicating that 
nature never intended her to lay. I could name a number of professors 
and physicians that have told me they have discovered the same condi- 
tion after they had taken my lessons. 

The reader will please bear in mind that the two pelvic bones of a 
hen are not always of the same thickness. Some hens may have one 
pelvic bone thicker than the other; when this is the case, add the two 
together and half of the number will be the right thickness to judge by. 
For instance, if one pelvic bone was V« of an inch and the other one was 
V4 of an inch, the added thickness would be V« of an inch; dividing this 
would give you ^/u of an inch as the thickness of one pelvic bone. Where 
one bone is thicker than the other, the thinnest one is on the left side of 
the hen. 

Our next hen may be another six-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
17; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones 
may be •/« of an inch thick, as in Fig. 25; she would be a 265-egg type 
hen. 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen in good condition; 
pelvic bones */« inch; she would read six fingers abdomen; good con- 
dition ; pelvic bones »/» of an inch. By consulting Chart 6, we will find 
this is a 205-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good condition; 
3/^-inch pelvic bones; this hen will be a 175-egg type hen. 



64 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




FIG. 124— ILLUSTRATION OF DIFFERENCE IN ABDOMINAL CAPACITY 

Note the large, soft, pliable abdomen of the high producer on the left, as compared 

with the small, hard abdomen of the low producer on the right. This illustration also 

shows clearly the difference in size of vent in a good layer as compared with a poor 

layer. Photo from New Jersey Experiment Station. 




THE CALL OF , THE HEN. 



65 




FIG. 144— OVARY AND OVIDUCT OF GOOD AND POOR-LAYING HENS 

CONTRASTED 
This remarkable illustration shows, on the reader's left, the ovary and oviduct of 
heavy-laying Rhode Island Red hen, and on the right the egg organs from poor-laying 
hen. Both hens were actively laying, but the poor producer's ovary shows a much 
lower state of activity — shorter cycles with long periods between — and this is con- 
firmed by the noticeable smaller size of the oviduct which suggests also that the hen 
has not been laying for so long a period as the one on the left. Photo from Conn. 
(Storrs) Exp. Station. 



66 THE CALL OF THE HEN, 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good condition; 
pelvic bones 1 inch. We look on Chart 6, and find that 1-inch pelvic 
bones indicate the 55-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; she may be two 
fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 21, and her pelvic bones may be 
Vi6 of an inch thick. We would read her as four fingers abdomen; 
two fingers out of condition; this would make her a six-finger-abdomen 
hen if in condition. We look on Chart 6 at Vie-inch pelvic bone, and 
find our last hen is a 280-egg type hen, if in condition, and it is up to 
us to put her in condition and keep her there as nearly as possible. 

I will admit it is a hard proposition to keep the non-setting typical- 
egg type hen in condition, but the man that comes the nearest doing 
so is the best feeder. I will have more to say in regard to the matter 
of condition in the chapter on Judging Utility Fowls at the Poultry 
Shows. This work is a matter of line upon line, and I must necessarily 
repeat the same matter in some respects time after time. But as this 
is an educational more than an entertaining proposition, I hope that 
my readers will bear with me. 

As I said before, there are three types of hens. The hen listed 
on Chart 1 as Vie-inch pelvic bone is a typical egg-type hen, because 
all she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. 
The hen listed as ^/g-inch pelvic bone is a dual-purpose hen; half of her 
vitality is used in producing eggs and half in producing meat. The 
hen listed as ^/g-inch is a typical meat- type hen; all she consumes goes 
to the production of meat, except what she uses in bodily maintenance. 
The hen listed as Vie-inch pelvic bone on Chart 2 is a typical egg-type' 
hen; the hen listed as '^/s-inch pelvic bone on same chart is a dual-pur- 
pose hen; and the one listed as ^/g-inch pelvic bone is a typical meat- 
type-hen; the same rule follows in all the charts. All the hens listed 
as Vi6-inch pelvic bone are typical egg-type hens and they can't be 
made to pay as a meat proposition. The hens listed in the center of 
each chart are the dual-purpose hens; they can be used as an egg and as 
a meat proposition. The hens listed on the bottom of each chart are 
the meat- type hens. Nature has fitted them for the production of flesh, 
and there is no human energy that can change them to a paying egg 
proposition. 

Between the above three distinct types there are combinations 
of each adjoining type. This allows sufficient latitude for the preference 
of each individual breeder. A person can breed the typical egg-type 
hen and cock bird with pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick. If he thinks 
this type is too delicate, he can breed from the ^/le-inch pelvic bone 
stock; this is my favorite type; the hen of this type is better able to 
withstand the vicissitudes of the poultry yard than her finer-bred 
sisters. I will have more to say along this line in the chapter on Broilers. 
I think we have given sufficient examples in Chapters III, IV, V, VI 
and VII, to enable the reader to examine a hen so he may be able to 
arrive at her approximate value for the purpose he wishes to use her for. 

In a previous chapter we have said there is occasionally found a hen 
-seven fingers abdomen. If the reader finds one, he can score her by 
Chart 6 and add 15 eggs to the number indicated. For instance, if the 
hen is in good condition and measures seven fingers abdomen and her 
pelvic bones are Vs inch thick. Chart 6 would indicate she is a 205-egg 
type bird; we then add 15 eggs to the 205, which gives the hen 220-egg 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 67 

capacity. If she is five fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition, 
we call her seven fingers abdomen, and proceed as above, which gives 
us the same results. 

There are two other matters I wish to call the attention of the reader 
to in this place. One is, that I have found hens occasionally that laid 
a great deal better by the trap-nest than they scored by the Hogan 
test, but it was owing to a mistake made in measuring their abdomens, 
owing to the rear of the breast-bone turning up, sometimes almost an 
inch over normal shape, thus indicating a smaller abdomen than really 
was the case. The other matter is a more serious one — in fact, very 
serious in some flocks. It is the bagging down of the abdomen over 
the rear of the breast-bone. Every hen used in the breeding-pen should 
be examined for this defect, for if one of them is bred from, she is almost 
sure to transmit her weak ovarian system to her ofi'spring. Some of 
these hens will make remarkable egg records for a year or so, then will 
never lay another egg; and again, the eggs are liable to be very infertile 
and more or less thin-shelled; and if you have great numbers of hens, 
you can hardly tell when these hens stop laying for good, unless you 
trap-nest them, as their pelvic bones do not close up as readily as hens 
in normal condition. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case, as 
it is very easy to prevent all this trouble. I meet hundreds of the above 
hens in my visits to poultry plants, but never have a case in my yards. 
I examine all my pullets when about a year old for possible breeders. 
If a hen satisfies me as to Capacity, T3rpe, and Prepotency, I then hold 
her as if I were testing her for capacity, except that I hold her by the 
right leg only. I then lay my hand on her breast, so that it (my hand) 
will conform to her shape, and draw it slowly along her breast-bone 
(or keel) from front to rear. When my hand reaches the rear, if I feel 
the slightest indication of her abdomen dropping the least bit below the 
rear of the breast-bone, I reject the hen as a breeder, and thereby save 
myself a world of trouble in the future. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Prepotency. 

We will take up in this chapter Prepotency, the science of breeding 
poultry, so that we can breed with a definite knowledge of what we are 
doing, and not leave it to intuition or chance. It is an old saying that 
"like begets like;" this seems to be true in some cases, but seems not 
to be true in other cases. Students of human nature can readily see 
where it has apparently failed. Some children will resemble and act 
like one parent and some will resemble and act like the other parent; 
then again, some children will be like neither of the parents. Breeders 
of horses and cattle are well aware of the variations in ofi'spring from the 
type and characteristics of sire and dam. It is more through persistency 
in breeding than the general knowledge of any scientific principle that we 
have succeeded in producing the grand types of animals we see at our 
State fairs. The breeding of poultry is no exception to the above rule. 



68 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




FIG. 184— "X-RAY" SKETCH SHOWING PELVIC ARCHjANDLKEEL 

a. Pubic bones, forming rear part of pelvic arch. 

b. Rear of keel or breastbone, c. Lateral or sternal processes. 




FIG. 191— GOOD AND POOR PRODUCERS CONTRASTED AS TO FLEXI- 
BILITY OF SKIN 
The skin of the high-producing hen on the left is much more pliable and freer 
from abdominal fat than the low producer on the right. Photo from Storrs (Conn.) 
Experiment Station. The skin of the good producer is soft, loose and pliable. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 69 

While some breeders have good success in breeding for the desired type 
of bird, whether for fancy, for eggs, or for flesh, others will have very 
poor success. 

The purpose of this chapter is to explain to the breeder who has had 
poor success a method that will enable him to breed with the full under- 
standing as to what he is doing. It is a well-known fact among the 
clothing trade that if a woolen manufacturer has a sample of cloth 
presented to him, he can manufacture thousands of yards that will 
be an exact duplicate of the sample. The same is true in other industries. 
But suppose the reader gives an order to one of our well-known poultry 
breeders for 1,000 pullets, to be delivered at four months old, these 
pullets to be housed, fed, and cared for as the breeder designates, and 
to approximately lay a certain number of eggs their first laying year; 
how many breeders do you suppose could fill the order? Until a ma- 
jority of them can do so the poultry industry will not be on a business 
basis, but will be more or less of a gamble. 

I have said that seemingly like does not beget like in some cases. 
We will take, for instance, a hen that is five fingers abdomen, in good 
condition, 34-inch pelvic bones. She will scale up as a 205-egg type 
hen. We will mate up a pen of these hens with a 205-egg type cockerel 
or cock bird; we raise 100 pullets from this mating and they may scale 
175-egg type. We then say, "Like does not produce like." Here is 
where we make a mistake. In one sense we are right, in another we 
are wrong. Nature makes no mistakes. We have mated 205-egg- 
type male and female, and we get as a result 175-egg type product. 
That's as plain as the nose on one's face, and we throw up our hands 
in despair and say, "It's all luck and chance." Another party mates 
up the same type of birds and gets a lot of pullets that average 210 
eggs their first laying year; still another party mates up the same type 
of birds and does not get a chick. 

The reader may smile, but this is no dream. A number of such 
cases have come under my observation. One case was that of a pro- 
fessor in one of the Southern California public institutions. He had a 
pen of twelve Black Minorcas, headed by a splendid-looking cock bird; 
also a pen of twelve Andalusians. He said there was something peculiar 
about these hens, and he wanted to know if I could detect it. I tested 
all the Andalusians, and told him they should average 140 eggs their 
first laying year, and I would expect twelve eggs out of every thirteen 
to be fertile. After testing the Minorcas, I told him they would average 
about 160-egg type, but if they were mine, I would not set any of their 
eggs while they were mated to the present cock bird, because I would 
not expect them to hatch, and if they did hatch, they would be degener- 
ates. He said, "This is the second season I have bred from the birds; 
I always get good hatches from the Andalusians; but, although I see 
the rooster serve the hens, I have never been able to hatch a chicken 
from the Minorca pen." I replied, "He serves the hens out of sym- 
pathy." 

Another case was a Barred Rock hen, the only one a neighbor 
had in a small flock of Houdans. He called me one day, saying he had 
a remarkable pullet at his place, and he wanted me to call and tell him 
how many eggs she would lay her first la:ying year. She had been laying 
two months, and he was keeping her record. I went with him, tested 
the hen, and told him she might lay 250 eggs, but I did not think that 
c H— 4 



70 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

any of them would hatch. After her first laying year was up, he showed 
me her record. She had laid 258 eggs, and although he had a good 
Barred Rock cock bird with her, and had set a number of settings under 
hens, he failed to hatch a single chick. I could cite a great number of 
such cases. 

In the first of these cases the fault was with the male bird ; in the 
last case the fault was with the hen ; in both cases the trouble was caused 
by a lack of prepotency (amativeness), and not through any defect in 
the anatomy of the birds. Everything in the universe is governed by 
certain immutable laws. If we understand these laws and can discover 
a way to control them, we may be able to use them to our advantage. 
Does' the reader ever stop to consider these matters? What, in your 
opinion, is the greatest effort of Nature? The writer thinks it is the 
effort to reproduce the species in all their different forms of animate 
and inanimate life. If the case were otherwise, this earth would be 
barren of grass and shrubs, of flowers and fruits, and of every living, 
moving thing on land and in the sea. What a desolate old world this 
would be with only bare dirt and rocks and water. And when we consider 
what a wonderful thing life is, can we doubt that Nature has made 
some extraordinary provisions for controlling its inception? In the 
wild state the survival of the fittest prevented degeneracy of the species, 
but under domestication birds cannot follow their instincts; and their 
owners should be familiar with Nature's laws in order to be able to 
breed intelligently. 

When the writer was twelve years of age he took up the study of 
human nature, and later had help from that great teacher. Professor 
O. S. Fowler. Years of practice in dissecting and in anatomy and in 
the study of the skulls of animals and birds gave me the opportunity 
to study the construction of the different skulls and classify them as to 
the known habits of the birds or animals under consideration. The 
knowledge gained in this way was of inestimable value in later research 
in the selection and breeding of poultry. I am positive that without 
this early training I never could have accomplished what I have. 

After raising my first lot of Leghorns in 1869, I decided to dispose 
of all breeds but the Leghorns and Light Brahmas. I said I would raise 
Leghorns for eggs and Brahrnas for meat. Up to that time I had not 
paid much attention to the individual laying qualities of the birds. 
Experience had taught me that the Light Brahma, when fed right and 
of the right age, made a delicious table-fowl, and I was led to believe 
the Leghorns were all great layers. That was a good many years ago; 
and we have made wonderful discoveries and progress in science and the 
arts since that time. The reader can imagine my surprise when I found 
by experience that some of my Leghorns laid very few eggs and laid 
them only in the spring months; others laid large numbers and laid late 
in the fall and early winter. In those days we had no cold-storage 
plants, and while eggs were very cheap in the summer, they were very 
dear in the winter, and I decided to experiment with my Leghorns, 
with a view to getting more eggs in the winter. After a few years of 
study and experiment, I mated the best egg-type birds and from some 
pens got good results, from other pens not so good, and from still others 
very poor results. My previous studies in anatomy had enabled me 
to select the matings from birds that were all of the same type, and I 
expected to raise a lot of poultry that would be duplicates of their 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 71 

parents, as far as their egg-laying qualities were concerned. But after 
numerous experiments in mating the 180-egg type cock bird with 180- 
egg type hens, I found I could not depend on getting definite results. 

Some are born rich, some are born handsome, and some are born 
lucky. The writer was born with none of these gifts, but with a com- 
bination of faculties that compelled to invention, to wander and toil 
and delve in the fields, the by-ways, and the mines of the mysterious. 
These researches, with the aid received by studying the pioneers in the 
same lines of investigation, led to the discovery, as the writer thinks, 
of the fundamental principle that underlies the reproduction of the 
species. After a number of matings that were more or less discouraging 
failures, I decided to look to the brain of the bird as the seat of the 
cause of a great many of the variations between the characteristics of 
the ofi"spring and those of the parents. I had previously demonstrated 
by experiment that environment had an influence on the shaping of 
the skull of the birds. By focusing on this subject the skull-knowledge 
I had gained in the previous nine years, I was led to think that brain 
governed most of the functions of the body, and if so, why not the 
reproductive function? I reasoned that as I had mated up several 
pens of the same type of hens with the same type of male birds, and that 
as there was no difference in their temperaments, that the hens all 
looked alike, all weighed alike, and were all in the same condition — 
or, in other words, they were all in perfect condition (to be more explicit, 
the hens were three fingers abdomen, pelvic bone Vie of an inch thick; 
all hens were in good condition ; the cock birds were two-finger abdomens, 
in normal condition, and pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick; all hens were 
alike and all cock birds were alike, and all were about a year old) ; that 
there must be something apart from the anatomy and physiology of the 
hen that governed or in some measure controlled the reproductive 
functions. As I had exhausted all my resources in the above lines, I 
was very reluctantly obliged to enter a new field of research — the field 
of Phrenology. I killed the cock birds that had given us the best 
results, boiled their skulls until free of flesh, and found them as in No. 
1, Fig. 35. The skulls of the cock birds that gave the next best results 
were like No. 2, Fig. 35, and the skulls of the cock birds that gave the 
poorest results were like No. 4, Fig. 35. 

The Arrows A, B, C, and D show the base of the brain. If A were 
continued upward, it would pass through the projection 3^ of an inch 
from the end; if B were continued, it would pass through the projection 
about Vs of an inch from the end ; while C would be at the extreme end 
of the projection, and D would pass outside the skull. The part of the 
skull where the arrows 1, 2, 3, 4 point contains the rear lobe of the brain, 
an examination will show that the development of this portion of the 
brain corresponds to the shape of the skull at this point. 

And right here is where we were on the point of the second great 
secret in breeding that would verify the saying that "Like begets like." 
The first discovery was, that if we wished to raise pullets that would 
be good layers, we would have to mate good-laying hens with the same 
type of male bird, and not with the meat type — that is, the male birds 
would have to be of the same temperament, of the same anatomy, 
and of the same physiology as the hen. I found that if I had a hen 
that laid 180 eggs by the trap-nest, and if I wanted to raise a lot of 
pullets that would average 180 eggs, I could not depend on the trap- 



72 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



nest to aid me any^farther^than to tell me the number of eggs a hen laid, 
what particular eggs she laid, and the progeny of each hen, both male 
and female. I also found great variations in type in mature cockerels 
from each individual hen, which we considered was due to the difference 
in type of the male bird and the difference in vitality of one or both 
birds at different times during the breeding season; sometimes the hen 




Fig. 35 — Three degrees of amativeness (otherwise called "prepotency"). 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 73 

at other times the cock bird, transmitting their characteristics. When 
I was assured of this through numerous experiments, I reasoned that 
my failures were because the male birds were of a different type from 
the hens, and when I had demonstrated that the male birds were of a 
different physiology by practice and scientific measures, and mated ac- 
cordingly, I flattered myself with the assurance that I had discovered 
all that was necessary in order to breed poultry intelligently. But 
after more experiments, I was not wholly satisfied with results; and as 
I had adopted the motto, "Like begets like," I reasoned that although 
the birds we had mated were alike, as far as we could see, the remaining 
difference must be some place where I had failed to look for it. My 
knowledge of the different variations in form of the skulls of animals 
and birds of the same breed, together with the knowledge I possessed 
of human skulls, led me to investigate the head as the only remaining 
factor in the problem. When I reduced this proposition to a method, 
and when I was able to measure its potentiality, then I assembled the 
hens and cock birds, mating the 180-egg type hens and the 180-egg 
type cock birds, each bird with the same degree of prepotency. Then, 
and not until then, had I ever knowingly mated like to like. For years, 
like many others, I thought I had mated males to like females, but I 
was mistaken. And here is where I discovered my second great secret. 
After this I mated like to like more intelligently, and the results were 
more satisfactory. 

I consider the selection of the male birds for mating along anatomical 
and physiological lines, together with the proper understanding and use 
of the faculty that governs the reproductive function, as the greatest 
discoveries ever made in the poultry industry. 

The reader may think there is very little difiference in the skulls 
in Fig. 35. If you add an inch to the length of a man's legs, it does 
not seem to make much difference in his height, but if you add an inch 
to the end of his nose, it would make a great difference in his looks. 
I found this expansion on the back of the skull corresponded to the faculty 
of amativeness in the human family. I found that when it was large in 
both male and female the parents possessed the ability to transmit their 
predominating characteristics to their offspring. If the parents were 
fancy birds, their progeny would in some cases excel their parents in 
feather, vigor, and other good qualities. If the parents were of the 
egg type, some of the chicks would be as good and some better layers 
and more vigorous than the parents; if of the meat type, the progeny 
would be of a stronger constitution, of a quicker growth, and assimilate 
their food better — in a word, if both parents have this faculty (called 
"prepotency" by some) large, the chicks will be more likely to be equal 
to, and some will, excel their parents along the lines in which the parents 
predominate. If the parents have the faculty small, the chicks will 
not be so good as the parent stock, but will degenerate along the lines 
that the parents excel in. If a hen is a 200-egg type and she has this 
faculty small, she will be just as valuable as an egg-producer as if she 
had the faculty large, but she will be of no value as a breeder; she will 
be an old maid from choice, and her eggs will not be fertile, if she has the 
faculty small enough. If the male bird has it small, his eggs will not 
hatch well, and if totally lacking, they will not hatch at all. I have 
found a few cases where the cock bird had the faculty of prepotency 



74 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



(amativeness) large and failed to fertilize the eggs, but the cases were 
very rare, and I attributed it to weakened or diseased nerves; as, for in- 
stance, the nerves of the teeth or sciatic nerve, in the human being. 




Fig. 36 — Holding hen ready to put in sack. 

Fig. 36 shows how to hold a hen before putting her in a sack to 
examine her for prepotency. 




hand 



Fig. 37 — Holding legs with right hand and gathering sack around legs with left 



Fig. 37 shows how to put her in the sack, holding legs with right 
hand, with back of hen against bottom of sack, and gathering sack 
around legs withleft hand. 



THE CALL OF TEE HEN. 



75 



Fig. 38 shows tying sack around legs so that she cannot move while 
examining her for prepotency. (Cut a little off the corner of the sack 
— just enough to get her head through. Hen in Fig. 38 is too far out 
of the sack.) 




Fig. 38 — Tying sack around legs so hen cannot move while examining her for 
prepotency. This method of holding the bird is only necessary while you are learning. 
If there is someone to hold the hen for you, it would be quicker. When you become 
skillful, you can hold the bird as in Fig. 43. 



The b^st way for a beginner to learn how to handle a hen for pre- 
potency is to select a hen you wish for the table. Cut the corner off of 
a gunny sack; hold her as in Fig. 36; put your hen in sack and tie her, 
as in Figs. 37 and 38; then make a hook of wire or a hair pin, attach it 
to a string with small weight or stone; hang hen up against barn or shed, 
head down, back against building; take long-bladed pocket or other 
knife with sharp point, insert in hen's mouth, and draw across the roof 
of the mouth at the back of the brain at the junction of the neck, severing 
the blood-veins, then immediately force the knife through the roof of 
the mouth into the brain. The knife should be forced well into the 
brain, which will sever the nerves, and the bird will feel no pain; then 
insert hook in the nostril, and the weight will hold the neck straight. 
The hen should bleed freely. After bleeding has stopped, clean mouth 
and surrounding parts of blood, and place hen in some convenient place — 
on a box or coop. The thumb-nail on the left hand and nail on the 
forefinger of the right hand should be longer than the thumb and finger, 
so the flesh on end of thumb and finger will not prevent the nail from 
entering the slight depression between the skull and neck. 

We will suppose the reader has handled the hen as suggested above. 
Lay the dead hen as in Fig. 39; take hold of comb or head and pull neck 
up with right hand, and while holding head up the neck will be stretched 
out. Turn the head down with right hand, so the back of the head 
will point up and beak will point down as much as possible. This will 
make the projection of the brain (arrow 1, Fig. 35) appear more promi- 
nent, so it will be easier to locate it; then draw ball of thumb of left hand 



76 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



down on head until you feel back of skull; when you feel back of skull 
with ball of thumb, then turn first joint of thumb down until thumb-nail 
fits in between end of skull and neck and well up against base of brain; 
then, while holding left hand and thumb as in Fig. 39, put forefinger of 
right hand at base of brain behind the ear, as in Fig. 39, between the 
neck and the skull and against the skull behind the ear, as in Fig. 39. 




Fig. 39 — Showing thumb •/• oi an inch ahead of forefinger; indicating hen is total- 
ly lacking in prepotency. (See Skull No. 4, Fig. 35.) 

The ear can readily be discovered by lifting up its hairy covering. The 
thumb-nail must be held perfectly straight across the neck, as in Fig. 39, 
and not sideways; and the forefinger must be held perfectly at right 
angles with the thumb, or the length of projection (arrow 1, Fig. 35) 
from the base of the brain (arrow 4, Fig. 35) cannot be measured accu- 
rately. 

^ ^ The reader will notice that my thumb-nail is ahead of my forefinger- 
nail in Fig. 39; this indicates that this hen is wholly lacking in the ability 
to transmit any redeeming qualities to her offspring, also that she has 
no desire for offspring. If this were a male bird, the eggs from his matings 
would be infertile. Fig. 40 shows thumb on line with forefinger. Mat- 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



77 



ings from this type of head would not produce very fertile eggs, and the 
progeny would deteriorate each year if they were bred from stock with 
heads like this. If the parents were 200-egg type, their egg-yield and 
vitality would be reduced each generation of breeding. If they were of 
the beef type, their vitality and ability to produce flesh economically 
would diminish with each generation. If they were a fancy type, the 
breeder would be up against a stone wall of discouraging experiments. 




Fig. 40 — Thumb even with forefinger; indicating she has prepotency small. (See 
Skull No. 3, Fig. 35.) 



I would advise the reader to take special notice of Fig. 43, as this 
cut shows the method of determining prepotency plainer than any of 
the others. 

Fig. 41 shows a hen with prepotency full — i. e., thumb Vs of an 
inch behind forefinger. Sometimes a poultryman will be lucky enough 
to mate up a lot of pens of the right type for his purpose with heads like 
Figs. 41, 42, and 43. His business prospers, and his neighbors call him 
"lucky." While others are going bankrupt raising poultry, he holds 
his own and is making a good living. Figs. 42 and 43 show a hen with 
an excellent head for breeding purposes. The thumb in this case is 



78 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



}4: of an inch behind the forefinger. If this hen is mated to a male 
bird of the same type and prepotency, her eggs will be very fertile, and 
a large number of the progeny will be equal to and some will excel the 
parent stock in the lines that predominate in the parents. By selecting 
these few specimens each season for breeding, it is possible to breed a 
highly valuable type in the course of time. Fig. 43 shows how to hold 
a bird between the knees after you become proficient in testing the head 
while the bird is in a sack. After a little practice you will become so 
proficient that you can test birds for prepotency without having to put 
them in a sack. 




Fig. 41 — Showing thumb •/» of an inch behind forefinger; indicating hen has pre- 
potency full. (See Skull No. 2, Fig. 35.) 



CHAPTER X. 



Testing Hens on a Large Scale, Using Charts 44 and 45. 

I will describe in this chapter how I cull hens when we have large 
numbers of them, as we have in poultry plants in California. I shall 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



79 



take it for granted that the reader has no method of selecting the good 
from the poor layers, except, perhaps, the "Walter Hogan System" or 
some of its pirated forms that are now used extensively in all parts of 
the civilized world, and which is based on the theory that the value of 
a hen as an egg-producer depends on the relative distance apart of her 
pelvic bones and the thinness of same. We will suppose the reader has 
.300 hens; one lot are about a year and four months old, another lot are 
about two years and four months old, and another lot are about three 
years and four months old. Each lot has been kept in separate yards, 
so there can be no mistake in regard to their ages, or they have been 
toe-punched or otherwise marked. We notice more or less feathers 
lying around the yard, thus indicating the season of the year when 
moulting is near at hand. Everything else being equal, the poorest hen 
moults first, and if she is a very poor layer, she will stop laying when 
she begins to moult and will not lay again until the crows lay in the 
spring. We consider it is about time to cull out the poor layers and send 
them to market. 




Fig. 42 — Showing thumb \i of an inch behind forefinger; indicating hen has pre- 
potency large. (See Skull No. 1, Fig. 35.) 



80 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




I 



Fig. 43 — ^Showing how to hold bird between knees after you become proficient 
in testing head while bird is in sack. 



The next thing that comes to mind is the question, "What is a poor 
layer?" That all depends on the price you get for the eggs, the price 
of feed, houses, etc. I raised poultry in Todd County, Minnesota, in 
1886 and 1887, and sold good lumber at the saw-mill for $5.00 per 1,000 
feet. Wheat was about 1 cent per pound, and wheat screenings for 
chicken feed could be had for the hauling. It is very evident that a 
poorer class of layers might have been kept at a greater profit when sup- 
plies were at that low price than can be profitably kept when supplies 
are as high-priced as they are at the present time. So the reader can 
see that the matter of the profitable hen is a local matter. At this 
writing you can buy nearly two bushels of wheat in some parts of Minne- 
sota for what you will pay for one in California. I was told a few days 
ago that you could buy twice as much oats at the present time in Minne- 
sota as you can in California for the same money. 

When studying Charts 44 and 45 we see there are certain figures 
lined off from the rest; this is for the purpose of aiding the reader at a 
certain time each year to select the poor layers from the good ones without 
using the charts, thereby saving the time necessary to look over the 
chart and classify each hen. 

Charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, as the reader will learn by bearing in 
mind the following instructions, need be used only to determine the laying- 
score of the individual hen. 

The first figures underlined in Chart 44 are in the column indicating 
three fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to ^/le-inch pelvic bone. 
The second are in the column indicating four fingers abdomen, from 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



81 



i/i6-inch pelvic bone to ^/le-inch pelvic bone. The third are five fingers 
abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to ^/le-inch pelvic bone. The 
fourth are six fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to "/le-inch 
pelvic bone. 

We will make a copy of Charts 44 and 45 on a piece of white-card- 
board and hang it up in a convenient place in the yard where the sixteen- 
months-old hens are penned. We will suppose that the ends are all 
closed in the house or houses. We put catching-coops in position as in 
Fig. 2, and drive hens in same as in Fig. 1. When there are enough 
hens in the coop, shut down slide-door that holds them in. In this 
case it is necessary to keep only four figures in mind; any four you 
prefer will do. 





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82 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Here in California we use the figures 5, 7, 9, and 11 for the hen sixteen 
months old, meaning by this that hens having pelvic bones Vie, ^/le, 
^/i6 and "/i6 inches in thickness (depending on the depth of abdomen) 
will be the maximum thickness of pelvic bones of really profitable hens; 
or in other words this means a three-finger abdomen hen, Vie-inch 
pelvic bone; four-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bone; five-finger- 
abdomen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bone; six-finger-abdomen hen, "/le-inch 
pelvic bone. Anything below this line (that is, any hen having a thicker 
bone in the different classes) goes to market. For the twenty-eight- 
months-old hen we assume that they are hatched in March and sold 
in the summer. We use the figures 3, 5, 7, and ^/u for the three-, four-, 
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THE CALL OF THE HEN. 83 

use the figures 1, 3, 5, and Vie for the three-, four-, five- and six-finger- 
abdomen hens. You perceive that the older the hen the greater the 
number of eggs she must have laid in her first year. Here in California 
we keep large numbers of hens, and in this way we can sort out and 
market here each year in a short time, as we do not have to stop and 
figure out the percentage of loss for each year of age, as these figures 
come near enough to suit our purpose. If they do not suit the local 
market, the reader can use any figures that will. 

I shall give a few examples only to show how we would proceed to 
cull out the hens. The reader must be familiar with the general principles 
of capacity, condition, and type. He should by this time have familiar- 
ized himself with the charts. Now, if he prepares the figures as I have 
directed, he will experience no difficulty in determining in a moment 
just where and what to do with each individual hen. We establish a 
certain standard of production for the first laying season, in order to 
know how long to keep her. You may take 80 eggs for one season, 120 
eggs for two seasons, and 150 eggs for three seasons, or any other set 
that suits your local conditions. Here we take about 120, 150, and 180 
eggs as the standard ; that is, a hen must be able to lay about this number 
in her first laying year in order to stay with us for two, three, or four 
seasons. With this explanation, we shall proceed to cull, putting into 
the shipping-coop all hens that fall below our standard, and dropping 
in the yard where we stand any that we desire to keep. 

Now, take a hen out of the catching-coop as in Fig. 3, and hold her 
as near as possible as in Fig. 5. Place hand on abdomen. She may 
be one-finger abdomen, in good condition; her pelvic bone may be Via 
of an inch thick; her capacity is three dozen eggs her first laying-year. 
She has laid all these eggs and will lay no more until the next spring 
when the crows lay, and eggs are cheap; so we decide to put this hen in 
the shipping-crate, to be sent to market. 

We take another hen from the catching-coop, and go through the 
same process. She may be a two-finger abdomen hen, in good condition ; 
her pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick; this indicates a hen that may lay 
eight dozen of eggs her first laying year. As a rule, when hens are so 
fed and cared for, they will lay their maximum number of eggs their 
first laying year; they will, as a rule, lay about 15 per cent less each year 
after, provided, they are given the same care and feed. In this case 
the hen in hand might lay about 85 eggs; if you think that will pay you, 
let the hen drop out of your hands into the yard where you are standing; 
if you think it will not pay to keep her, put her in the shipping-crate 
for the market. 

The next hen may be two fingers abdomen, one finger out of condi- 
tion, as in Fig. 20, with pelvic bones 3^ of an inch thick. If this hen's 
comb and wattles are red, and the hen is strong and active, being one 
finger out of condition indicates that she is not being properly cared for, 
either in food or environment, or both; in the condition she is in at 
present, if continued the whole year, she might lay about 69 eggs, while 
if kept in normal condition, she might lay 138 eggs. (See Chart 3.) 
So we will call her a good hen, and drop her. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, Vie-inch pelvic bone, 
and in normal condition. If this hen were in Petaluma, we would drop 
her, as she would be a paying hen. By referring to the chart, you will 
see that she is a 124-egg type hen. You must bear in mind constantly 



84 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

that a thick bone in a hen of small abdominal capacity would mean a 
practical non-producer, while the same thickness of bone in a hen of 
much larger capacity would mean simply a more beefy hen. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
as in Fig. 19, and pelvic bone ^/s of an inch thick. This hen has the 
same abdominal depth as the preceding, but her pelvic bones being 
Vs of an inch thick would make her a 110-egg type hen, and with us no 
hen that lays 120 eggs pays to keep two seasons. We put this hen in 
the shipping-crate for market, as it will not pay to keep her any longer, 
if in Petaluma. She will not pay for her board after this time and leave 
enough profit. 

The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
and ^/i6-inch pelvic bone. She, being a 130-egg type hen, it will pay 
to keep her another year, so we drop her. 

The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
and 3^-inch pelvic bones; this hen will lay approximately 115 eggs her 
first laying year, but not enough her second year; so we put her in the 
shipping-crate for market. 

The next hen may be five-finger abdomen hen and in good condi- 
tion; ^/i6-inch pelvic bone. She is a 130-egg type hen, so we drop her. 
While this hen has a pelvic bone Vie of an inch thick, she has the abdom- 
inal capacity to supply herself with food enough to lay a profitable number 
of eggs and put on flesh at the same time. 

The next hen is five fingers abdomen, in normal condition, and 
Vs-inch pelvic bones; this is a 115-egg type hen, so we put her in the 
shipping-crate. The hen we had just before this one was kept; but when 
we come to the ^/g-inch pelvic bone, we decide that we have reached 
the lowest-limit of egg-production. 

The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
and "/ifi-inch pelvic bone; she will be a 130-egg type hen, so we drop 
her. 

The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal condition; 
pelvic bones 34 of an inch thick; she will be a 115-egg type hen, so we 
will put her in the shipping-crate. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, three fingers out of 
condition, and Vs-inch pelvic bones. If her comb and wattles are pale 
and bloodless, she is no doubt diseased and should be disposed of; but 
if her comb and wattles are red, it indicates, as a rule, that she is out of 
condition on account of accident or lack of feed. In her present condition 
she scores 166-egg type. If we get her in one finger better condition, 
she will measure four fingers abdomen, and score 205-egg type; if we 
can get her in two fingers better condition, she will measure five fingers 
abdomen and may be Vie-inch pelvic bones, on account of becoming a 
little more fleshy, and score 220-egg type; and if we get her in three 
fingers better condition, she would then be in normal condition, and her 
pelvic bones might be Vie or i^ inch thick; if the latter, she would 
score 235-egg type. (We will have more to say on the changing of thick- 
ness of the pelvic bone in the last of Chapter XVIII.) 

We will continue selecting or separating the good from the poor 
layers in the same manner, keeping every hen for another year in the 
three-finger-abdomen class that is Vie-inch pelvic bones and thinner, and 
sending every hen to market that is over Vie-inch pelvic bone in the three- 
finger-abdomen class; keeping every hen in the four-finger-abdomen class 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 85 

that is ^/i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over Vie-inch pelvic bone in the four- finger-abdomen class; 
keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen class that is Vie-inch pelvic 
bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market that is over Vie- 
inch pelvic bone; keeping every hen in the six-finger abdomen class that 
is "/i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over "/le-inch pelvic bone thick. 

I want to say here that there is nothing arbitrary in regard to Charts 
44 and 45. Each poultryman can draw the lines where he thinks it 
will best suit his purpose. A great many years of experimenting has 
led the writer to believe these charts answer the purpose very well. 

We have disposed of all the one-year-and-four-months-old hens, 
and will move our outfit to the two-year-and-four-months-old hens, and 
arrange the catching-coop and charts as in the first case. 

The first hen we take from the coop may be a one-finger-abdomen 
hen, in good condition. All one and two-finger-abdomen hens in good 
condition over one year and four months old, as a rule, should be disposed 
of. There is no profit in them after they have laid their allotted number 
of eggs their first season — or, in other words, after they commence to 
moult in their first laying year; so after this we will not consider them in 
this connection. 

There is a great difference in the number of eggs a flock of hens will 
lay each year as they grow older. Some will lose 5 per cent, some 10 
per cent, some 15 per cent, and some 20 per cent. Some will not lay 
anything (this will be explained later) after their first laying year. It 
depends altogether on the vitality of the hen and how she has been fed 
and raised ; and the variations in the percentage of eggs laid by exactly 
the same type of hens will vary with different poultry-keepers and also 
with the same poultry-keeper, varying more or less in each separate 
pen, proving that environment has more or less to do with egg-production, 
all other things, as far as human knowledge is concerned, being equal. 
Some people who are good mathematicians, but who are wholly ignorant 
of animal nature, look surprised when I explain to them the difference 
between classifying the production of a number of like machines with the 
production of a number of hens of the same score in egg production. 
As a scientific proposition, it is impossible to write a chart beforehand 
that will fit every case. If we took 1,000 hens of any pronounced type — 
say 100-egg type, which were fed, housed, and cared for in exactly the 
same manner, and one of them laid 5, 10, or 15 eggs more or less some 
year than the other 999 hens, it would prove our contention or theory, 
from a scientific point of view. I am sure that 100 expert poultrymen 
could take 100 hens of the same general type that would score the same 
egg-capacity and would all be in the same condition, and each poultryman 
feed and care for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how, 
and very few of them would agree on a set of figures that would give the 
percentage of decrease in egg-production each year. The one who fed 
the heaviest and produced the most eggs would have the largest per- 
centage of decrease, while the ones who fed for hatching eggs and did 
not force their hens with condiments and stimulants would get the 
least number of eggs and the lowest percentage of decrease, not figuring 
the percentage of decrease from the number of eggs actually laid, but 
from what the hen would lay each year. 



86 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

The writer does not claim that he has discovered a system that will 
infallibly give results just as he has written them. No poultry man needs 
to be told this, but for the benefit of the amateurs I have inserted the 
above caution. The writer claims, by years of investigation and prac- 
tice, to have formulated a poultry code as contained in this book that is 
commercially the approximation of perfection. 

We will return to our two-year-old hens. We said all one- and two- 
finger-abdomen hens should be sold and we will consider them no more 
than to put them in the market crates when we find one. The reader 
will remember that in selecting the sixteen-months-old hens we retained 
only those in the three-, four-, five-, and six-finger-abdomen columns 
that measured ^/le, ^/le, ®/i6, and "/is of an inch or less, and everything 
below these lines went to market. In the show room, when the writer 
judges utility birds, we use the charts, so as to score each bird according 
to its capacity for egg-production; but when we cull the poultry on 
commercial plants, in order to save the time of looking on the charts, 
we keep in mind only four figures for the hens of any age that we are 
examining. For hens about sixteen months old, we use the figures: 
5, 7, 9, and 11, which represent that many sixteenths; for hens with 
three-finger abdomens, we use the figures ^/lel for four-finger abdomen 
hens, ^/le; for five-finger-abdomen hens, ^/le; and for six-finger-abdomen 
hens, "/i6. All under three-finger abdomen go to the market and all 
under the line go also. 

For the two-year-and-four-months-old hens we keep in mind the 
following figures: 3, 5, 7, and 9 sixteenths. For the three-finger-ab- 
domen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bone; four-finger-abdomen hen, Vie-inch 
pelvic bone; five-finger-abdomen hen, '^/le-inch pelvic bone. Everything 
below these figures goes to the market; also all one- and two-finger- 
abdomen birds there may be in the lot. 

We now go to the hens that are three years and four months old. 
Any one- and two-finger-abdomen birds that we may find go to market 
and all the three-finger-abdomen birds below Vie-inch pelvic bones. For 
the three-years-and-four-months-old birds we bear in mind 1, 3, 5, and 7 
sixteenths. Three-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bones; four- 
finger-abdomen hen, Vi6-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, 
^/i6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, Vie-inch pelvic bones. 
All below these lines go to market. 

If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed from, he 
can use the figures: 1, 3, and 5 sixteenths. 

The fourth year, when he wishes to select from the four-, five- 
and six-finger abdomen hens, it will be: Four-finger-abdomen hen, Vie- 
inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, ^/je-inch pelvic bones; and 
six-finger-abdomen hen, Yie-inch pelvic bones. Very few will want to 
keep hens as long as this. They will be five years and about four months 
old when you will sell them. Most people here sell them about the 
time they commence to moult — after they are two years old; but I 
selected the hens used at the California State Poultry Experiment Sta- 
tion to test this method as far as the egg-laying qualities were concerned, 
and the hens I selected as hens that would pay at four years made a 
good paying record. 

The reader will understand that the way we have just been selecting 
the paying hens is the way we select when we have large numbers; this 
is the way I selected 1,600 hens in six hours at the poultry farm of the 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 87 

Ukiah State Hospital, Mendocino County, California, and at other 
State hospitals and poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure 
out the percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combination 
of figures you wish, as 3^-inch, Vs-inch, i^-inch, Vs-inch, forsixteen- 
months-old birds; Vie-inch, Vie-inch, Vie-inch, Vie-inch, for twenty- 
eight-months-old-birds. You can figure out the percentage of loss each 
year and take a combination of figures that will suit your purpose. You 
have only to carry four figures in your mind. The percentage of loss 
each year is computed by good poultrymen to be from 10 to 20 per 
cent in egg-production on plants that are run for hatching eggs. If you 
force your hens with an excess of meat and condiments, the loss will be 
according to how you feed them, and no one can tell what it may be 
but yourself. Some poultrymen will get practically all there is in a 
hen out of her the first season, then sell her. 



CHAPTER XI. 



I 



The Male Bird. 

This is not a treatise on cattle or horses, but we have to use them 
very often to illustrate the matter in hand. Stock-raising has been 
brought to more of a science than poultry-raising, and is well understood 
by thousands of our progressive farmers. I have met hundreds of them 
who could describe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting 
a good-paying butter- fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam and 
sire; and while there may be as many poultrymen who understand the 
selection of poultry, both male and female, for egg- and meat-production, 
I have failed to meet them, and while I was made the butt of ridicule 
by the poultrymen when I issued my first pamphlet, entitled the "Walter 
Hogan System," in March, 1905, the stock-raisers who were interested 
in poultry stood by me to a man. The reason was, that the cattlemen 
had been studying along the utility lines in both sire and dam in order 
to develop the milk, butter-fat, and beef-producing capacities of their 
cattle. It was a comparatively easy proposition for them. The form 
of the animals was plainly to be seen. They were not covered with a 
coat of fluff and feathers that hid the shape and form of the subject. 
It was easy to distinguish between the cat ham of the butter-fat type 
and the full, deep ham of the beef type. It was no trouble to compare 
the udders, milk-veins, and wedge-shape type of th^ Jersey with the 
full, rounded build of the Hereford or Polled Angus. 

On the other hand, the poultrymen, to some extent, were deceived 
by the appearance of their hens. Take, for instance, the Cochin and 
the Bantam; they would hold about the same relation to each other as 
the lordly Durham would to the fine-bred Devon, yet I have found 
Bantam hens with as deep abdomen as a great Cochin hen; and it is 
my opinion that if poultry were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the 
poultry industry would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle 
business. 

The greatest impediment to the successful breeder of poultry has 
been the inability to select the male bird of the required type. The 
custom in vogue at the present writing with most poultrymen is to trap- 
nest their hens and raise cockerels from the best layers as indicated by 



88 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

the trap-nest. The trouble with this method is, that while the hen 
may lay a large number of eggs, she may not have the faculty to transmit 
her laying qualities to her offspring, and her cockerels may be deficient 
in both egg-laying qualities and the ability to transmit what good 
qualities they may possess to their progeny. 

Again, I have seen a great many cases where poultry-farmers would 
send away and buy a lot of cockerels. The man that raised and sold 
them had no knowledge of how to classify them, and the man who 
bought them knew he was buying cockerels and that is all he did know 
about them. He could not be sure whether they would increase his egg 
yield or not. He had to pay his money and take chances. It was 
nothing more nor less than a gamble; but the days of gambling in the 
poultry business are passed for the intelligent, progressive poultryman, 
no longer will he be obliged to trust to luck or intuition. He will be able 
to select his male birds with as much assurance as his hens, and instead 
of groping in the dark, he will have the satisfaction of seeing and knowing 
just what he is doing by bearing in mind the instructions in this chapter. 

The reader will by this time be familiar with the different types and 
capacities of hens, and will not be surprised to learn there is a similar 
number of variations in the male birds; and if one wishes to produce a 
certain type and capacity in a pullet or cockerel, he must select the 
parent birds that will produce that type. We know how to select the 
hen; we will now take up the study of how to select the male bird. 

We go through the same movements in selecting or testing the male 
bird as we do in selecting the hen, but we use a different set of charts. 
For example, it is possible for a hen to change from six to three fingers 
in abdominal capacity within a month and be healthy and active, and 
in another month to return back to her original six-finger capacity 
but it is not so with the male bird after he is mature. I have tested male 
birds at nine months of age that scored four fingers abdomen, Vie-inch 
pelvic bone, that did not change for four years, except that their pelvic 
bones being Vie of an inch thick at nine months old, I have found them 
to be Vs of an inch thick at eighteen months old. They had increased 
in thickness of bone from Vie to Vs inch. These were egg- type male 
birds; the meat-type will vary more or less in the thickness of the pelvic 
bones — depending on how much flesh they put on or lose between the 
different times of examining them. 

It will be easy to distinguish the egg-type cock bird from the meat- 
type bird; the former has thin pelvic bones, whether in flesh or not, 
while the latter has thick pelvic bones with a more or less lump of gristle 
on the end of them, whether he is thin or in good flesh. I have found 
that in classifying the male bird as we have the hen as to type and 
capacity for a certain egg-yield it requires less abdominal capacity in 
the male bird than in the female. For instance, the male bird that is 
two fingers abdomen and Vie of an inch pelvic bone is the same type and 
capacity for breeding purposes as the three-finger-abdomen hen, Vie-inch 
pelvic bone. The male of the same class, as regards capacity, does not 
require as large an abdomen as the female; this is so self-evident that it 
would be a waste of time to try to explain the reason for it. 

I have heard poultrymen say that the male bird is half of the flock. 
I wonder if they stop to consider whether this is so or not. My birds 
are wonderful layers, and I mate one male bird to every twelve hens, 
and from a breeder's point of view I consider my male birds a great 






THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



89 



deal more than half the flock. If I mate 100-egg type cock birds with 
200-egg hens, the progeny may lay about 150 eggs, thus reducing my 
egg-yield about 25 per cent in the progeny of each of the twelve hens. 
For this reason I have given as much thought to the male bird as I have 
to the hen ; and in arranging the charts for the male birds have experienced 
a great deal of dilificulty, as it takes years of time and hundreds of matings 
to arrive at conclusions that would be approximately correct. In any 
one case, everything else (type, capacity, and breed) being equal, care 
and environment have a dominating influence on the product, whether 
eggs or meat; consequently, if a number of investigators were working 
on this proposition, using the same system of selection, they could not 
help but arrive at somewhat different conclusions as to figures, but that 
would not affect the value of the system. 



MALE BIRD— CHART A. 



Vl6 

v« 

Vl6 
Vl6 

Vs 

Vl6 

V2 

Vl6 

Vr 



pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 
pelv 



"/i6 pelv 



One-finger Abdomen. 

c bone 84-egg type 

c bone 75-egg type 

c bone 67-egg type 

c bone 58-egg type 

c bone 50-egg type 

c bone 41-egg type 

c bone 33-egg type 

c bone 24-egg type 

c bone 16-egg type 

c bone 7-egg type 

c bone 0-egg type 



MALE BIRD— CHART B. 

One-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 



Vi6 pelv 
Vs pelv 
Vi6 pelv 
V4 pelv 
V16 pelv 
Vs pelv 
V16 pelv 
V2 pelv 
V16 pelv 
Vs pelv 
"/16 pelv 
V4 pelv 
^Vi6 pelv 
Vs pelv 



c bone 132-egg type 

c bone 120-egg type 

c bone 109-egg type 

c bone 98-egg type 

c bone 87-egg type 

c bone 75-egg type 

c bone 64-egg type 

c bone 53-egg type 

c bone 42-egg type 

c bone 30-egg type 

c bone 19-egg type 

c bone 8-egg type 

c bone 0-egg type 

c bone 0-egg type 



90 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

MALE BIRD— CHART C. 

Two-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 180-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 166-egg type 

Vi6 pelvic bone 152-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 138-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 124-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 110-egg type 

'/16 pelvic bone 96-egg type 

V2 pelvic bone 82-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 68-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 54-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone 40-egg type 

^/4 pelvic bone 26-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 12-egg type 

'/g pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART D. 

Two-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 200-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 185-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 171-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 156-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 142-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 127-egg type 

V16 pelvic bone 113-egg type 

^/2 pelvic bone 98-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 84-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 69-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone 55-egg type 

^1 \ pelvic bone 40-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone 26-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 11-egg type 

*Vi6 pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART E. 

Three-finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 235-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 220-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 205-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 190-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 175-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 160-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 145-egg type 

V2 pelvic bone 130-egg type 

®/i6 pelvic bone 115-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 100-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone 85-egg type 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



91 



V4 pelvic bone 70-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone 55-egg type 

'/g pelvic bone 40-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 25-egg type 

1-in pelvic bone 10-egg type 

*Vi6 pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART F. 

Three-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 



V16 pelv 

Vs pelv 

V16 pelv 

V4 pelv 

V16 pelv 

'/s pelv 

V16 pelv 

V2 pelv 

V16 pelv 

Vs pelv 

"/16 pelv 

^/4 pelv 

^Vie pelv 

^/g pelv 

*Vi6 pelv 

1-in pelv 

"/16 pelv 

IVs pelv 



c bone 257-egg type 

c bone 242-egg type 

c bone 227-egg type 

c bone 212-egg type 

c bone 197-egg type 

c bone 182-egg type 

c bone 167-egg type 

c bone 152-egg type 

c bone 137-egg type 

c bone 122-egg type 

c bone 107-egg type 

c bone 92-egg type 

c bone 77-egg type 

c bone 62-egg type 

c bone 47-egg type 

c bone 32-egg type 

c bone 17-egg type 

c bone 0-egg type 



V16 pelv 
Vs pelv 
/16 pelv 
i pelv 
V16 pelv 



V. 



16 

Vs pelv 
V16 pelv 
V2 pelv 
V16 pelv 
^/s pelv 
^Vi6 pelv 
V4 pelv 
"/16 pelv 
''/» pelv 
^Vie pelv 
1-in pelv 
^Vi6 pelv 
IVs pelv 
IV16 pelv 
IV4 pelv 



MALE BIRD— CHART G. 

Four-finger Abdomen. 

c bone 280-egg type 

c bone 265-egg type 

c bone 250-egg type 

c bone 235-egg type 

c bone 220-egg type 

c bone 205-egg type 

c bone 190-egg type 

c bone 175-egg type 

c bone 160-egg type 

c bone 145-egg type 

c bone 130-egg type 

c bone 115-egg type 

c bone 100-egg type 

c bone 85-egg type 

c bone 70-egg typ^ 

c bone 55-egg type 

c bone 40-egg type 

c bone 25-egg type 

c bone 10-egg type 

c bone 0-egg type 



92 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



We consider the male bird of so much importance that we have 
made seven charts for his classification as to egg and meat types. See 
Charts A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. While Chart A may not be needed 
and Chart B used very seldom, we thought it best to include them. 
All old poultrymen and stock-raisers know that so many considerations 
enter into the breeding and raising of live stock of all kinds that it is 
impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules that can be depended upon 
beforehand to bring definite results in all parallel cases. This is written 
as a caution to beginners, especially to those whose experience has been 
at the desk or behind the counter. 

Fig. 46 shows a cock bird four fingers abdomen and Fig. 47 shows 
the same bird Vs-inch pelvic bone, making him a 265-egg type bird. 

The reader will see by Figs. 46 and 47 that we use the same methods 
to determine the egg-value of a male bird as we use for the hen, except 
that we do not think it advisable to take the matter of condition into 
consideration, or rather it is better not to lay down rules in the matter, 
as it is very hard to keep the egg-type birds in good condition; but I 
try to keep my cock birds in good flesh and not over one finger out of 
condition at any time. X^ere are times before the male birds are a 
year old and while their bones are soft that their abdomens will contract 
and expand, it depending on whether they are stinted in their feed, or 
whether they are fed liberally. Egg-type cockerels selected for breeders 
should have the best care and food (see chapter on Selecting Cockerels 
for Breeding). In examining the male birds for prepotency, the reader 
should select them with the greatest care. I cannot impress this on the 




Fig. 46 — Showing four-finger depth of abdomen of 265-egg cock bird. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 



93 




Fig. 47 — Showing |-inch pelvic bone of 265-egg cock bird. 




Fig. 48 — Showing 1-16-inch pelvic bone of 280-egg type hen. 



94 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 49 — Showing six-finger depth of abdomen of 280-egg type hen. 




Fig. so — 280-egg type hen and 265-egg type cock bird. Tail of cock is somewhat 
cramped for want of room. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 95 

reader too strongly. They should be as good or better if possible than 
No. 1, Fig. 35, and do not forget that the thumb nail on the left hand 
and the nail on the forefinger of the right hand (reverse the order if 
left-handed) must be somewhat longer than the flesh, if you expect to 
take correct measurements. 

CHAPTER XII. 



I 



Selecting the Cockerels at Broiler Age. 

I have tried to impress on the reader the importance of the careful 
selection of the male birds, and perhaps he is fully alive to the value 
of doing so. He starts out at the first opportunity and visits all the 
poultry plants far and near, with the determination to purchase the best 
male bird he can find. Before starting out, he decides he will have 
nothing less than 200-egg types. Imagine his disappointment when, 
after handling perhaps fifty or more, he can find nothing that will come 
any way near the 200-egg type; while if he examines the same number of 
hens, he will very likely find at least one or perhaps more that will come 
somewhat near what he is looking for. Then he will say that there is 
no such bird as the chart describes as a 200-egg type cock bird. I wish 
to say here that I think I have at least fifty male birds at the present 
writing that will scale from 200 up, according to the charts. I have 
over a dozen that will scale from 250 to 265, and these have all been 
developed within six years from hens with three-finger abdomens and 
3^-inch pelvic bones, mated to cockerels with 13^-inch finger abdomens 
and Vi6-inch pelvic bones. 

The first season in California we raised about 300 cockerels up to 
three months of age, which is within the broiler age for this section. 
We arranged our house and catching-coop as in Figs. 1 and 2, and we 
went through the same movements that we do when testing the hens, 
except that we do not have to use all the tests on each one of the cockerels 
that we use on the hens. We hold the cockerel as in Figs. 5 and 6 and 
lay our hand on his abdomen as in Fig. 7. As soon as we lay our hand 
on his abdomen we can feel instantly whether his pelvic bones are straight, 
Hke Fig. 34, or crooked, like Fig. 33. If his pelvic bones are like Fig. 33, 
we have no use for him as a breeder and put him in the shipping-crate 
for market; if his pelvic bones are straight, like Fig. 34, we measure the 
depth of his abdomen; if it is less than two fingers, we put him in the 
shipping-crate; if two fingers or over, we examine him for prepotency; 
and if the projection on the back of his head, as in No. 1, Fig. 35, is less 
than Vs of an inch behind a line drawn at right angles from the back 
Off the ear (see Figs. 41, 42 and 43) we put him in the shipping-crate, 
no matter how good he is in other points. We take no chances with 
him, because if we have made no mistake in measuring his head lines, 
abdomen, and pelvic bones, it will be a waste of time to breed from him; 
but if his head measures up good, we keep him as a prospective breeder. 
We say "as a prospective breeder," as it is very evident it will not pay 
to raise all the cockerels to maturity. 

Here in Petaluma, where there are over 600,000 cockerels raised to 
broiler age in a season, it would be impossible to raise them all and test 
their breeding qualities, neither is it necessary. If a person has a 



96 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

delicate touch, the comparative value of chicks for prepotency can be 

judged as well when they are three days old as at any time later. Then 
again, we are obliged to keep our chicks until we can distinguish the 
males from the females, and as a rule we will lose nothing if we keep 
them until they are at least ten weeks old, when, if they have had the 
right care and feed, they will be old enough to test. If their pelvic 
bones are thick at this age, it indicates they are more or less of the meat 
type; if their pelvic bones are crooked, it indicates that they never will 
be straight; and if they lack prepotency, it indicates that they will always 
lack it, for they come out of the shell with this organ relatively large or 
small, just as a baby is born with a nose on its face. 

I want to impress on the reader the importance of using the utmost 
care in measuring the head for prepotency, as it is very easy for a person 
to think he has measured the head right when he has not done so; 
especially if he has large self-esteem, he then thinks everything he does 
must be right; it would be impossible for him to do anything otherwise 
than the right way. In my classes I have found workers in the ma- 
chinists' trade made the most correct measurements, especially if they 
had the faculty of human nature large, while I have found that profes- 
sional men who had human nature small make the poorest measure- 
ments; this was owing to prejudice, and not to the absence of the com- 
bination of the necessary mental faculties. I suppose there will always 
be found those who will discredit the most obvious fact, if it puts them 
at a disadvantage from a mental, moral, or financial point of view; 
but in this case it would be cutting off your nose to spite your face to 
be careless in any of these tests. 

I have never yet, in my investigations of hundreds of poultry plants, 
found a degenerate lot of poultry but that they were small in prepotency. 
But to return to the cockerels: As we said on page 83, we raised 300 
cockerels the first year I was in California. After testing them at three 
months old, as described, I found eighteen that I considered worth 
keeping to the age of nine months, when I would give them the final 
test. When they were eight months old I tested them again, and while 
I found that they all had good depth of abdomen and good prepotency, 
six of them had crooked pelvic bones. The pelvic bones on twelve of 
the cockerels had continued to grow straight, while the pelvic bones 
on six of them had grown crooked and were coming together at the points 
like the horns on a Jersey cow. I had to discard these six breeders and 
send them to market. 

The reader will see that, out of 300 cockerels, I had only 12 that 
were capable of improving my flock. Last year (1912), out of about 
1,200, I had only 200 that I considered good enough to keep for breeders; 
and while all my birds have been more or less squirrel-tailed, one of last 
year's 200 is a very well-formed, low-tailed bird, but he lacks the pure- 
white ear-lobes. He scores 250-egg type, and I have refused $50.00 
for him. I am going to see if I can breed a low-tailed type of Leghorn 
in quantities that will conform to the present American Standard, and 
average about 200 eggs per year in large flocks. The reader will under- 
stand that the parents of these cockerels were selected with the greatest 
care as to capacity, type, and prepotency. Type and prepotency are 
more or less hereditary traits or features, distinguishable in the sub- 
jects,^ if we have the knowledge necessary to discern them. But the 
individual inherent or innate potentiality of any one or each bird cannot 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 97 

be increased or diminished by the breeder; that is to say, feed and 
environment will not materially change the impotent bird into a potent 
bird, neither will it change the typical meat-type into the egg-type 
bird. 

"But," I hear some sarcastic reader say, "we certainly can diminish 
or increase their prepotency by alternately starving and feeding them 
well." That is begging the question. You could affect their fecundity 
very readily; but what the writer wishes to impress on the reader is, 
that while type and prepotency are fixed before birth, and also the 
ability to govern capacity, and while type and prepotency can be procured 
only by selection, capacity can be governed more or less by environment 
— in other words, feed, care, the right kind of houses, ground, etc. We 
will say, for instance, the reader has a pen of egg-type birds, both male 
and female, with large prepotency and capacity, and suppose they were 
all 200-egg birds. There would be no difficulty in raising chickens from 
them with the s&me degree of type and prepotency; but if he should 
stint them in feed of the proper kind and quantity while growing, they 
would lose in capacity each generation. I develop the capacity of both 
pullets and cockerels from the time they are three days old to the fullest 
extent by the most liberal feeding, care, and surrounding conditions. 

In concluding this chapter, I would say that the bird with the desired 
characteristics is more or less of a sport, and the value of the "Hogan 
Test" lies in the fact that with this knowledge you can discover the sport 
and perpetuate it through intelligent breeding. Again, I want to say 
here that my best cockerels measure four fingers abdomen at three 
months old. All my stock is developed as much as possible at this 
age, and I try to prevent the cockerels from shrinking. But the pullets 
will develop until some of them are six fingers abdomen. 

The following article from the Petaluma Weekly Poultry Journal 
emphasizes what we have said in regard to the feeding and care of young 
stock. These cockerels were not crammed or penned up and fed, but 
were taken off free range and sent directly to market. I wish to remind 
the reader here that in examining the cockerels for prepotency he may 
be proficient enough in the matter to examine them by holding them 
between his knees and not be obliged to put each one in a sack. The 
article follows: 



"Walter Hogan Can Raise Chickens. 

"Walter Hogan backs up his system of selecting the good layers 
from among the poor ones, but he has never made much fuss about his 
ability as a poultry-raiser. For that reason some people have absorbed 
the idea that he is more of a theorist than a practical man. But he 
now has a flock of his own, and evidently he is making good, for he is 
getting results that will convince any one from Missouri or anywhere 
else who must be 'shown' before believing. For instance, last week 
there was a spell of most discouraging depression in the prices which 
dealers were willing to pay for young poultry. There were large arrivals 
of Eastern poultry in San Francisco besides heavy receipts of California, 
and nobody wanted any more. Just the same, Mr. Hogan received 
$4.00 a dozen for sixteen dozen cockerels just three months old, when 



98 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

the same dealer was paying but $1.50 for birds of the same age. Now, 
what do you think of that? And Mr. Hogan says these cockerels were 
not descendants of the beef type of hens, but were hatched from eggs 
laid by hens selected as the egg type. They were not especially fed or 
in any way prepared for market. They cost 22 cents each for feed, 
and thus the profit on the bunch was $21.76. 

"In speaking of this matter, Mr. Hogan made the point that if all 
poultrymen would pay especial attention to producing fine broilers for 
market — that i'^, in preparing the broilers that they are obliged to produce 
in order to have a corresponding number of pullets — they would benefit 
themselves greatly. Not only would they get a better price for the birds, 
but they would greatly increase the demand, as many people who now 
care nothing for the common dry-meated birds would become pleased 
consumers of the improved broilers. The Poultry Journal man knows 
by personal experience that the broilers turned out by Mr. Hogan are 
simply delicious when properly cooked, and far ahead of the ordinary 
article." 

CHAPTER XHI. 



Selecting the Setting Hen. 

"How can I select the best hen for the purpose when I want to hatch 
chickens with hens?" 

The writer is asked the above question very often. It is a serious 
matter with the poultryman when he has a small number of choice eggs 
he wishes to hatch and gives them to a hen that is apparently setting 
well only to have her spoil most of them. He very naturally lays the 
cause to mites or lice, or both. While it is true that the nests and sur- 
roundings must be kept free from mites and the hens kept clean from 
hen lice, the trouble is not all here by a good deal. Sometimes a great 
deal of the fault lies in the hens. Some are born layers, some are born 
mothers, and some are born too lazy to get off the nest at the call of 
Nature. The hen born a typical egg type is of no use as a setter, neither 
is the hen that is born a typical meat type ; she is too lazy to care for her 
chicks, even if she is fortunate enough to hatch any and not kill them 
all by standing on them. She is too stupid any way, and the typical 
egg-type hen is too nervous and has no time to attend to them. She 
thinks of nothing but manufacturing eggs. So we will have to look 
for a hen between the above types, which we have in the dual-purpose 
type, with the following characteristics; 

First, she must have prepotency large; that gives her the mother 
instinct; next, she should be in normal condition, as indicated by her 
breast-bone; that is self-evident, for a hen out of condition lacks more 
or less of the animal magnetism, that is an aid to successful incubation. 
I need not mention good health, as indicated by good red comb and 
wattles, as everyone knows that. The hen should be four fingers ab- 
domen, since anything heavier is more or less liable to break the eggs 
and anything less than that would not be large enough to cover sufficient 
eggs. If the hen is a three-finger abdomen hen, her pelvic bones should 
be about ^/le or 3^ of an inch thick; if she is a four-finger abdomen hen, 
her pelvic bones should be about 3^ or Vie of an inch thick. If you 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



99 



can find hens such as described here, you will have hens with the mother 
instinct. They will not be too lazy to take proper care of themselves 
and their chicks, nor will they want to lay so soon as to neglect their 
chickens. The nearer you can get to procuring the above type of hens 
the better success you will have raising chicks with them. 

CHAPTER XIV. 



Selecting the Stock for Raising Broilers. 

A great many of my friends have requested me to write a chapter 
on how to raise broilers, but as there are so many excellent books on the 
market that describe the process of the feeding, caring for, and raising 
of broilers a great deal better than I could do it, I will confine myself 
to the selection of the breeding stock only. The writer has raised Light 
Brahmas and White Plymouth Rocks for years, and has experimented 
with them to get the greatest amount of meat from the smallest amount 
of feed; to get the greatest weight of meat at three months old in the 
White Rocks and the greatest weight of meat in the Light Brahmas at 
maturity. In the process I have run up against two distinct proposi- 
tions: One was a success from a commercial point of view, and the other, 
while not a financial success, was a success from an epicurean point of 
view. I will describe the financial proposition first: 

We will select a pen of hens from our favorite breed, or from Wyan- 
dottes, Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, or Rhode Island Reds. The hens 
must have large prepotency; they must be six or seven fingers abdomen 
and their pelvic bones should be ^/s of an inch thick, in good condition. 
Now you have hens that should lay twelve dozen eggs their first laying 
year, and they are a paying proposition. Do not breed from them the 
first year, but wait until they are over one year old ; then mate them with 
a mature cockerel or young cock with large prepotency, with abdomen 
four fingers deep or more and pelvic bones from 1 inch to 13^ inches 




Fig. 51 — The dry-mash hopper we use, closed. 



100 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



thick. You should feed the pen for eggs, and keep them as healthy as 
possible, If they are fed right, you will get lots of eggs and good, healthy 
chicks, capable of putting on flesh rapidly and fattening very easily. 
As a paying proposition for market broilers I have never found any 
combination that would equal it. 




Fig. 52 — The dry-mash hopper we use, open. 

But for my private use, without regard to profit, I would take the 
same combination as the above, except that the pelvic bones of the hens 
would be 1 inch thick, instead of about ^/%; this would give a broiler 
that would put on flesh much faster, consequently it would be more 
tender. I have raised broilers the flesh of which would almost melt in 
your mouth. I have a few secrets in the raising of them which I have 
never divulged, but may do so in a few years. 

CHAPTER XV. 



Using the Hogan Test in Judging Poultry at the Poultry Shows. 

From the Live Stock Tribune, Los Angeles, California. 

(Now Pacific Poultry craft.) 

"Inglewood Poultry Show. 

"A poultry show will be held in the Inglewood Poultry Colony on 
March 13th and 14th. This show will be the first of its kind ever given 
in the United States. All poultry shows that have been held in this 
country heretofore have awarded prizes according to the color, markings, 
and shape of the fowls only. The show at Inglewood will be unusual 
in that prizes will be awarded irrespective of the color, variety, shape, 
size or age of the fowls in competition. 

"Birds in competition will be judged as to their egg-laying capacities 
and reproductive abilities only. The judging will be done by the system 
discovered and perfected by Walter Hogan and now used in practical 
poultry-raising by the members of the Inglewood Poultry Colony. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 101 

"First, second, third, fourth and fifth prizes will be awarded to 
the best males and females entered from Inglewood; first prize being 
S5.00 cash, second prize being $3.00 cash ; all winners receiving ribbons. 
In addition to the foregoing, there will be the Jaffa Grand Prize of 
$25.00 in gold, which will be awarded to the hen in the show which shows 
the greatest capacity as a layer, combined with the ability to reproduce 
her kind. 

"Entries for the regular prizes will be limited to fowls from Ingle- 
wood, but competition for the Jaffa Grand Prize will be open to all comers. 
Entries from poultry-raisers outside of Inglewood will be limited to two 
birds each. No entry fee will be charged, but all birds entered will be 
sent at the owner's risk, as is usual at all shows. 

"The birds entered will be cared for and reshipped to the owners 
by the White Wyandotte Farm, under whose auspices the show will be 
given and to whom all entries should be sent. No entries will be received 
after 10 o'clock a. m. on March 12th. 

"This show will be unique in that it will present the commercial 
side of the poultry industry to the exclusion of fancy breeding. Every 
step in the poultry business from the hatching of the chick to the prepara- 
tion of the mature fowl for market, and the packing of the eggs for 
table use will be illustrated by actual demonstrations on the famous 
White Wyandotte Farm, where the exhibition will be given. Incubators 
will hatch not less than 2,000 chicks during the show, and chickens in 
every stage of development, from one day old to ten weeks old, will 
be shown as raised in the best brooders with the best care. 

"There will be demonstrations on both days of the show of killing, 
picking and preparing fowls for market, as well as of packing fancy eggs. 
The best and latest in poultry supplies, fittings, and equipment will 
be shown as actually used by the capable, successful men who are in 
the business for revenue only. 

"No admission fee will be charged, the show being given for the 
purpose of exploiting and demonstrating the poultry business as it is 
being developed in Southern California. 

"The Jaffa Grand Prize is given and riamed in honor of Professor 
Jaffa, of the University of California, who was the first man in public 
life in this State to test and verify the excellence of the system discovered 
by Mr. Hogan. 

"Transportation from Los Angeles to Inglewood will be free, and 
it is understood that the Board of Trade of Inglewood will make arrange- 
ments to take those who visit the show around the city of Inglewood in 
automobiles. 

"Those who visit the Inglewood Poultry Show will see an exhibition 
that will be more interesting by far than any show that has preceded it in 
California or in any other State, because one will have an opportunity 
to see, not the pedigree, but the money in the chicken and a practical 
way to get that money out," 



In judging the poultry show at Inglewood the management made 
the rule that all birds were to be judged according to the condition they 
were in at the time they were judged, and while this rule may be all 
right in judging the fancy bird and the beef -type bird, it will never do 

OH— 5 



102 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

for the egg- type bird, as the reader will see when I relate an incident 
that occurred during the show in Inglewood, which was held in March. 
A gentleman had entered a White Leghorn hen that he had trap-nested 
a year up to the previous November, and had her record with him. 
The hen scored (as near as I ran remember) two fingers abdomen, two 
fingers out of condition, and Vie-inch pelvic bone, and according to the 
rules of the show I was obliged to give her credit for 78 eggs her first 
laying year when, according to his trap-nested record, she had laid 180 
eggs. He said she had been sick and had just commenced to improve 
shortly before he sent her to the show, and he wanted to prove whether 
or not I could tell how many eggs she had laid her first laying year. 
I told him I could not tell how many eggs she had laid, but I could tell 
how many she could have laid if she had been fed and cared for right, 
barring accidents and sickness; that her capacity was 190 eggs her first 
laying year. He then showed me her record, which was 180 eggs. 

In the autumn of 1911 George D. Holden, ex-president of the 
American Poultry Association, judged the fancy and the writer judged 
the utility birds at the Pajaro Valley Poultry Show, held at Watsonville, 
Santa Cruz County, California. In judging that show full credit was 
given each bird, both male and female, as to what they were capable 
of doing, whether in meat or eggs, and for prepotency, without any 
regard as to how their owners cared for them — or, in other words, without 
regard to their condition. And the owners of the birds who were inter- 
ested in knowing were instructed how to rectify any deficiency there 
may have been in the birds. It seems to me this is the best way to 
encourage and develop the poultry industry. I am sure the American 
Poultry Association could formulate a code of rules that would greatly 
aid in judging utility poultry and thereby add greatly to the interest 
of our poultry shows; in fact, I am advised that such a proposition is 
being considered at the time I am writing this (July 25, 1913). 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Stamina in Poultry. 

When I came to California and told the poultry-raisers that I was 
going to take their birds and in the course of time breed a flock of 200-egg 
hens from them, they declared it could not be done. They said if it 
was possible to breed up a large flock of 200-egg hens, their progeny 
would be so weak I could never raise them, and that their eggs would 
be so misshapen and thin-shelled they would not be marketable. I 
replied that perhaps they were right, but I saw no reason why I could 
not do so here, as I had bred up one lot in the Eastern States and another 
lot in Minnesota. Both lots were Leghorns, and I thought it would 
be easier to develop Leghorns in California than in Minnesota, and I 
have now demonstrated in California that the following can be done: 

1. The 200-egg hen is a fact and not a theory. 

2. That she can be bred and fed to lay as perfect an egg as 

any other class of hens. 

3. That her eggs are as fertile and will hatch as strong chicks 

as the hen that does not pay for her feed. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 103 

The breeder need not take my word for the above statements. 
The frontispiece shows five of this type of birds that the writer bred 
and raised in CaUfornia. These birds laid the greatest weight of eggs 
(131 pens of five birds to each pen competing, including three pens of 
Indian Runner ducks) in the National Egg-laying Contest at the State 
Poultry Experiment Station, Mountain Grove, Missouri, U. S. A., for 
the twelve months ending November 1, 1912. These five hens laid 131 
pounds of eggs, which, reduced to No. 1 eggs as rated in Petaluma, 
would be 229V6 eggs for each hen. The eggs these five hens laid while 
moulting were put on exhibition in the Chamber of Commerce in Petaluma 
and were pronounced by good judges to be as fine a lot of eggs as they 
ever saw, and that is saying a great deal, as there are more eggs produced 
within a radius of ten miles from Petaluma than in any other like part 
of the world. We have hundreds of letters from our customers testifying 
to the value of this stock, a few extracts from which we will introduce here 
to prove to the reader that because a flock of hens are great layers it 
does not follow that they are of low vitality. 



Extracts from Letters. 

Portland, Ore., June 23, 1912. 
Received eggs. None broken. Very nice. Fifteen infertile out 
of 150. C. F. Perkins. 

LiHUE, Hawaii, June 11, 1913. 
Eggs arrived O. K. None damaged. Have fourteen chicks four 
weeks old doing fine. Am well pleased. 

E. H. Broadbent. 
(These eggs were shipped over 2,200 miles by rail and steamer to 
reach their destination.) 

Watsonville, Calif., April 5, 1912. 
Eggs received. Finest we ever had. Got forty-nine strong chicks 
from sixty-four eggs. Ora L. Hill. 

Vancouver, B. C, May 13, 1912. 
The 100 eggs received. Express and customs ran price to $14.00. 
Am very well satisfied. Hatched 70 per cent beautiful chicks; doing 
well. G. W. McLelland. 

QuiNCY, Wash., April 14, 1912. 
Chicks received; not a dead one in the bunch, which speaks well 
for the vitality of your stock. 

H. L. Johnson, Treasurer 
and Manager Quincy Lumber Company. 

Victoria, B. C, Sub. P. O. No. i, 

April 19, 1912. 
Received the 100 chicks; four dead. Think that is very good, coming 
that journey. James D. West. 



104 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Salem, Ore., April 19, 1913. 
Received baby chicks; they are just lovely; not one dead, which 
we think is great. They came in fine shape. 

Mr. and Mrs. Havre. 

Seattle, Wash., August 25, 1912. 
Received the 1040 chicks about ten weeks ago; there were five 
dead in the boxes. Have lost about 75 of them, all told. 

S. K. Suttle. 

Tucson, Ariz., February 17, 1913. 
Received chicks in good condition; 1 dead, 623 alive and kicking. 

L. E. Smith. 

Reno, Nev., March 11, 1913. ^ 
Chicks came through fine; 1 dead in 700, which speaks well for their 
vitality. They surely are a spry bunch. A. L. Rice. 

Reno, Nev., July 22, 1913. 
Chicks are fine; they are the largest and best-looking ever seen in 
Nevada. They are just 4 months and 12 days old. One of them laid 
yesterday. Every poultryman that sees them remarks it's too bad I 
haven't a thousand. A. L. Rice. 

The preceding extracts are taken from a few of the many unsolicited 
letters I have received from my customers during the last two years 
that I have been selling hatching eggs and day-old chicks. I have 
repeatedly shipped hatching eggs to the Hawaiian Islands and as far 
east as Minnesota, and day-old chicks where they would be over seventy- 
two hours on the road. Last summer I turned down over $6,000 worth 
of orders that I could not fill at $10.00 per 100 for eggs and $15.00 per 
100 for day-old chicks. I am aware I will have a hard time convincing 
some of my readers that what I claim for the 200-egg hen is true, but it 
seems to me any progressive poultryman would be satisfied with the 
proof I offer him. I will admit that the eggs and chicks from the 200-egg 
type hens as now bred are not all we would desire, but that is owing to 
lack of proper knowledge of breeding. As I have said before, by using 
the "Hogan Test" the reader can breed as fine or as coarse as his condi- 
tions require; and by selecting only those birds with large prepotency 
he will be assured of success. 



CHAPTER XVn. 



"At Sea Over Mating" — What Shall It Be, the Trap-Nest, 
Mendelism, or the Hogan Test? 

(From The North American, Philadelphia, Pa.) 
"At Sea Over Mating. 

"America has some good layers, unheard of and unknown, 'tis true, 
but we are evidently all at sea in the matter of mating for egg-production. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 105 

"Can it be possible that Mendel's law obtains in egg-production 
just as it does in feathers and form? Do we eliminate, according to 
Mendel, the factor governing certain things in egg-production, just as 
we do in the attempt to control coloring in birds, fowls, animals, and 
flowers? If a son of a heavy-laying female is mated to a non-layer and 
this son does not carry the excess of laying proclivity, do we get poor 
layers or good layers? If a 100-per cent producing hen (200 eggs or 
more) is mated to the son of a 100-per cent producing female, it does 
not follow, if Mendel's law applies, that the mate to the second 100 
per cent female inherited egg-laying proclivities; therefore, why should 
the offspring of the second mating be prolific egg-producers? And how 
far back must we go to get the excess of female inclination to repro- 
duction? 

"Predominance of inclination exists somewhere in some tangible 
form, but we do not seem to be able to find it under our present system. 
That we will is conclusive, but we must do so quickly, in order to offset 
the growing increase of foodstuffs." 



The trap-nest identifies and gives you the number of eggs a hen 
lays and is absolutely necessary if we wish to line breed or raise pedigreed 
stock. The writer has studied Mendelism since the spring of 1910, as 
he has numerous other scientific works, in the endeavor to find some- 
thing that would be of aid in getting out this work. I must confess 
that the title, "The Call of the Hen" was suggested while on a visit 
with Comrade Jack London, and that is all I have been able to find 
that has aided me in this case. Mendelism may be found an aid along 
the line of feathers but I doubt if there is anything in it that will aid 
the poultryman in the selection of breeders for type, stamina, and the 
production of eggs or meat. It may be that, having eyes, I fail to see 
it. Even if there should be anything of value in Mendelism, it would 
take two or more years to get it out, while "The Hogan Test" indicates 
the value of a bird in a few minutes, at most. It looks to me as if the 
poultry men will have to look at the trap-nest and "The Hogan Test" 
to develop and maintain the high-scoring meat- and egg-producing hen. 
The best pullets can be selected at maturity by "The Hogan Test" 
and then trap-nested when the poultryman is breeding pedigreed stock; 
while the culled pullets, lacking in prepotency and other points, can be 
kept as market-egg producers. In this way it will be necessary to trap- 
nest only the cream of the flock, and thereby save an immense amount 
of labor. The cockerels can also be selected at three months of age and 
the most promising saved from slaughter. By this method poultry- 
breeding will be reduced to a science and become a pleasure, where now 
it is a brain-racking proposition. 

A Trap-Nest or the Hogan System. 

By Charles H. Parker. 

March 21st, 1916. 
To the Editor, 

The Poultry Item, Sellersville, Pa. 

Dear Sir: — Some seven months ago I saw an advertisement in the 

Poultry Item about the Hogan System. I at once wrote for a copy 

and after reading it carefully was so much impressed with the principles 

upon which it was based that I determined to give it a thorough trial. 



106 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

The enclosed article gives the results of my six months' test of the system; 
these results are so striking that I have ventured to send them to you 
for publication in your paper. I hope you will be able to use it as getting 
these facts has involved a great deal of close personal attention and effort. 
I presented a copy of Mr. Hogan's book to a neighbor poultryman 
and induced another to send for a copy. The book was entirely unknown 
in this section. Both of my friends are enthusiastic about the system 
and have already found it of great value. They are both expert poultry- 
men, one of them having charge of Mr. C. F. Lewis' poultry yards here 
and the other having been in the business for fourteen years. The 
latter has found the chapters devoted to prepotency of cocks especially 
valuable and now understands why his flock went all to pieces some 
years ago after five years of careful upbuilding. 

Very truly yours, 

Charles H. Parker. 



"Do the physical characteristics of a pullet or hen — the distance 
between the pelvic bones and the breast bone, the width of the pelvic 
bones and the condition as indicated by the amount of flesh on the 
breast bone — enable a poultryman to foretell, with approximate accuracy, 
the number of eggs that a pullet or hen will lay in a year? This is the 
question the writer decided to answer for himself after reading Walter 
Hogan's book 'The Call of the Hen.' 

"If the system as outlined by Mr. Hogan is to be relied upon the 
use of the trap-nest would not be necessary except for pedigree work. 
No poultryman needs to be told how valuable, if reliable, such a system 
would be in enabling him, with a minimum of labor and expense, to build 
up a flock with a high egg yield, to regulate feeding by separating the 
egg from the meat type and in many cases to turn losses into profits. 

"This book made such an impression upon the writer that he at 
once determined to measure his hens according to the directions given 
by Mr. Hogan, to note the egg-laying capacity as thus indicated and to 
check this forecast with an actual trap-nest record. 

"Following are the very striking results of this experiment, extending 
over a period which put the system to a severe test — the months of 
September, October, November, December, January and February, in 
the state of Connecticut. The hens were Fishel's White Rocks, fed 
during the test, according to the Cornell formula and confined in yards 
allowing 100 square feet per bird. Each hen was carefully measured and 
leg-banded, great care being taken that no mistakes were made in the 
measurements. These measurements and the egg-laying capacity they 
indicated according to the system were as follows: 





Capacity 


Condition 


Pelvic bones, 




Hen No. 


in fingers. 


in fingers. 


inches. 


Egg capacity. 


RIO 


5 


1 


V« 


235 


G3 


5 


1 


V* 


235 


G7 


5 


1 


Vs 


205 


"R8 


4 


2 


V8 


205 


Gil 


5 


1 


V8 


205 


G8 


3 


2 


Vs 


175 


R4 


5 





72 


145 


R6 


3 


1 


Vt 


115 


G9 


4 


1 


v« 


85 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 107 

"According to the measurements given in the above table RIO and 
G3 were the best hens and would lay, if properly fed, in six months 
about 100 eggs. On the other hand R6 and G9 were not worth keeping. 
Following is the actual number of eggs laid during the six months of 
the test from August 24 to February 23rd, compared with the forecast 
made according to the Hogan System. 



Hen No. 


Hogan forecast. 


Actual trap-nest record 


RIO 


100 


104 


G3 


100 


102 


G7 


83 


83 


R8 


83 


82 


Gil 


«3 


77 


G8 


73 


60 


R4 


60 


51 


R6 


48 


21 


G9 


35 


19 



"It will be seen from the above table that the relative egg-laying 
value of the nine hens was not altered in a single instance. In the case 
of the first five hens it is remarkably accurate. The next three hens 
went into partial moult during the test while G9 was sick for a while. 

"These figures speak so eloquently for themselves that no comment 
is necessary except to emphasize the value of the system from a financial 
point of view. The profit or loss on the nine hens, figuring the cost 
of feeding at $1.20 per hen for the six months is as follows: 



Loss. 





Profit over 


Hen No. 


cost of feeding 


RIO 


$2.48 


G3 


$2.47 


G7 


$1.72 


R8 


$1.41 


GU 


$1.53 


G8 


$ .57 


R4 


$ .50 


R6 




G9 





$0.64 
$0.70 

"The writer wishes to urge the importance of absolute accuracy in 
taking measurements and in taking them at the right time — when 
hens are laying well. This is illustrated in the case of R7 which just 
before going into moult measured 4-finger capacity, 2 fingers out of 
condition and Vs pelvic bones. This indicated 265-egg type. But 
her measurements after moulting were 6 fingers capacity, condition 
perfect, pelvic bones "^ /u, indicating 190-egg type. The writer has found 
that the condition of a hen has considerable influence upon the size of 
the pelvic bones. 

"In conclusion the writer does not claim that a six months' test of 
a system either proves or disproves the merits of that system. He 
merely gives the results of his experiments for the interest or value that 
may be attached to them. It is his intention to continue this test 
until the year is finished, when he hopes to be able to offer something 
more definite and reliable about a system which at least seems worthy 
of greater recognition among poultrymen." 



108 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



"How Can I Tell A Laying Hen?" 

I am asked this question very often, and in reply would say that 
from a scientific point of view it is impossible to tell the laying hen 
except with the X-ray. When I say this I do not mean that you cannot 
tell in the Vast majority of cases, but there are occasionally hens whose 
formation is such that no known method will tell you whether she is a 
laying hen or not. I give in the last chapter my original "System" 
and the later supplement, which caused a great many questions to be 
asked, which I trust have been satisfactorily answered in this book. 

I was at a place in San P>ancisco lately where this subject was 
brought up. There was a small party present, all of whom had my 
"System." One of the party worked in a large meat-market, where 
they bought and dressed live poultry. He said that occasionally he 
dressed a hen that showed no indication of being a laying hen, but 
upon being opened an egg would be found in her. I told him the hens 
that he had described were those that laid a very few eggs and laid them 
only in the spring. Their pelvic bones expanded only while the hen 
was being delivered of the egg. This hen has practically but one egg 
under process of development at a time, consequently her abdomen 
does not have to expand to make room for only one egg. Whereas the 
hen that lays 150 eggs per year has a number of eggs developing at the 
same time, and her abdomen expands in proportion to her needs. The 
200-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs developing and she requires 
more room for them, hence her abdomen expands in proportion. The 
250-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs of all sizes developing and 
her abdomen expands still wider than the 200-egg hen. When the hen's 
abdomen expands, her pelvic bones, being literally a part of and con- 
tinuation of her abdomen, must expand and contract with it. When 
she is through laying for the season her abdomen contracts, and the 
pelvic bones must come closer together, which they do, although there 
are exceptions to this rule. We will take the 145-egg hen, for example 
of the sanguine temperament. She will be four fingers abdomen and 
'/g-inch pelvic bone, when in normal condition, with pelvic bones of good 
shape. We draw our hand along her breast-bone (keel) from front to 
rear, and find her abdomen does not drop down the least bit below the 
rear of the breast-bone. This hen we might call a "normal hen." Her 
pelvic bones will, in all probability, expand and contract in conformance 
with her condition of laying. If she is in the flush of laying, her pelvic 
bones may be about 1^ inches apart; later in the season, when she is 
not laying so frequently, her pelvic bones may close to about 13^ inches; 
and when she stops laying for the season her pelvic bones may close to 
about 1}4: inches. This will very likely be repeated each year. 

Now we will select a hen of the 250-egg type. We draw our hand 
along her keel, as with the last hen; we find she is all right, closely built 
and firm. We drop her and take another 250-egg type hen. The per- 
formance of drawing the hand along the keel is for the purpose of picking 
out the future breeders that may later bag down, indicating weak ovaries. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 109 

In this connection I wish to say that in selecting breeders I found that the 
best way to eliminate the hens that would begin to bag down behind 
was to follow directions as given belo^v. Of late years I have not had 
this trouble to contend with. It is always the heavy layer that breaks 
down, which indicates weak ovaries, and we do not want to breed from 
such. 

In drawing our hand along her keel (breast-bone) we find a slight 
bagging down in the rear. The abdomen seems to drop below the rear 
of the breast-bone slightly. We will say this is a pullet, perhaps six or 
eight months old. She is well developed, and you can call her one of 
your best hens. You are proud of her, and have decided to set every 
egg she lays. Do not use her as a breeder. This pullet should be put 
in a yard with others of her formation after she is sixteen months old 
and trap-nested. She may stop laying any time and never lay another 
egg, or she may continue to lay another year or so; in any case, she has 
been such a continuous layer that her frame has become set to that form, 
and her pelvic bones, as it were, set and will contract very little; they 
will indicate that she is laying, when in fact she may not have laid for 
years. I have kept such hens until they were 6 years old, and some of 
them have never laid an egg after they were about 16 months, still 
others after they were 2 years old. This is where a trap-nest will save 
you money. When you select your hens by Charts 44 and 45 at 16, 
28, and 40 months of age, the ones that bag down the least bit should 
be put in a yard by themselves and trap-nested to discover the ones 
whose ovaries have broken down and will lay no more. This is not 
difficult to discover, as the hen that is over the 205-egg type lays more 
or less at all times during the first two years of her life, if not stimulated 
to over-production her first year. "A little learning is a dangerous thing," 
is an old saying applicable to this case. When a man says, "Don't 
kill that laying hen," he should furnish you with an X-ray outfit that 
will enable you to comply with his request. 

The writer has used the pelvic-bone proposition for over forty years 
in selecting the laying hen, and has found the following to be a very good 
method in selecting the hen that is not laying: 

The hen that scores 130 eggs her first laying year would measure 
about ^/a of an inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying for 
the season. The hen that scores 150 eggs her first laying year would 
measure about 1 inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying 
for the season. The hen that scores 200 eggs would measure about 
13^ inches between the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. 
The hen that scores 250 eggs would measure about 13^ inches between 
the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The 250-egg hen 
does stop more or less after her second and sometimes after her first 
season, if not cared for right; but if feed and environment are right 
she may continue to lay more or less until 3 years old, when her frame 
may become set. When she is done laying her pelvic bones may remain 
2 inches apart. As hens grow older their pelvic bones become thicker 
during the winter months when they are not laying. The thickness 
varies according to their type, the typical egg type changing little or 
none, while the more pronounced the meat type becomes the more the 
pelvic bones change, owing to the increase or decrease of flesh on the 
abdomen (flank) of the fowl as it takes on or loses flesh, as indicated by 
her breast-bone. 



110 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Final Remarks on Constitutional Vigor and Vitality. 

As we have now reached the end of "The Call of the Hen," I wish 
to impress upon the reader's mind the importance of the five propositions 
that govern the Selection, Breeding, and Profitable Keeping of Poultry 
as follows: Capacity, Condition, Type, Prepotency, and Vitality or 
Constitutional Vigor. 

No doubt you have a good working knowledge of the first four 
subjects, and you wonder why I have not written a chapter on Vitality. 
The reason is, that when I decided to write "The Call of the Hen," 
I told my wife that I would write nothing that even a blind man could 
not understand and practice. I have tried to do so, for to her patience, 
perseverance, and untiring zeal I owe much of the success I have had 
in getting out this book. 

The writer can see only three ways of detecting vitality in a fowl; 
the most ancient is intuition, then observation, and lastly the trap-nest. 
A hen may be a typical 250-egg type hen, she may have the very best 
of care and food, and yet, for lack of vitality, may not be able to lay 
over 150 eggs per year. Let us take the steam engine for example. 
There are a great many types of engines besides the high and low- 
pressure ones, as there are a great many types of hens and cock birds. 
The diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolutions per minute 
give you the capacity of the engine, as the length and depth of abdomen 
in the fowl gives its capacity. The fuel fed into the fire-box generates 
the steam (vitality) to run the engine, as the food fed into the hen's 
abdomen generates her vitality. 

The writer has owned steam engines where there was defective 
fire-box construction — scale in the boiler and tubes, loose rings in the 
piston head, cylinder worn out of true, and other defects that reduced 
the efficiency of the power system a great deal — or, in other words, 
lowered the vitality of the engine. In just the same way a weak digestive 
system in a 250-egg type hen will reduce her egg-yield. But do not 
think that you can make a 150-egg type hen in perfect condition lay 
200 eggs by any of the feeding formulas now in vogue. If you try to 
force her, she will go to flesh and then break down with liver trouble. 

If you lack the intuitive faculty and lack the time to carefully observe 
individual hens, I would advise you to select the hens by the chart you 
wish to breed from. When they are about a year old you can breed 
from them. Then, if you wish to breed from only those with the greatest 
vitality, trap-nest these hens for the next two or three years. The hens 
with the greatest vitality will be great layers and strong, vigorous birds, 
and save the time wasted in trap-nesting a lot of birds that you will 
eventually have to discard. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Ill 



CHAPTER XX. 



Walter Hogan's System. 

This chapter contains "Walter Hogan's System," as written by 
M. F. Greeley, editor of the Dakota Farmer, to whom I gave the notes. 
This was published in 1904. At that time Mr. Greeley refused to put 
in anything about the skull theory. He said that I would make myself 
the laughing-stock of the world. I am merely putting this old work in 
this book in order that the reader may know the evolution of the dis- 
covery. The pelvic bone method of selection was, of course, my first 
discovery ; then later, the relation between depth of abdomen and thick- 
ness of pelvic bones; after that, the working out of the mathematical 
relation between egg-laying ability and those points before mentioned. 

When I came to California I gave out merely the "Walter Hogan's 
System" which had been printed in Minnesota; later I published a 
"Supplement," which gave a general idea of the capacity and type 
proposition; still later I issued typewritten charts as they are found in 
this book. I could have done all this many years ago, but my reasons 
for not doing it are explained elsewhere. 

I do not desire any of my readers to make the mistake of considering 
what comes after this as having anything to do with "The Call of the 
Hen," except in a historical way. Walter Hogan. 

Petaluma, Cal., July 31, 1913. 




FIG. 162— SPAN BETWEEN PELVIC BONE AND KEEL ILLUSTRATED IN 

DRESSED FOWLS 
The bird on the left in this illustration is a high-producing R. I. Red hen, and the 
one on the right a low producing hen. Note the greater distance between keel and 
pelvic bone, also the much rounder breast of the heavy layer, caused not by fat but by 
the more prominent sternal processes. Photo from Storrs Experiment Station. Note 
the large moist vent in the good layer, on the left. Also the skin of the good layer is 
soft and pliable. The poor layer on the right is the reverse. 



112 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



UTILITY SCORE CARD 

A great many poultry shows now have their birds judged by the 
"Hogan System" as well as by the "Standard of Perfection." The 
score card which is illustrated herewith is used in a great many shows 
and is recommended by Mr. Hogan. On the front of the card can be 
recorded the condition, capacity, type and prepotency of both the 
male and female. On the back of the card the judge can give the owner 
some idea as to the quality of his bird from a Standard viewpoint. 

The score cards are 8 inches long and 4}^ inches wide. 

UTILITY POULTRY SHOW 

Score Card. 

COOP No 

VARIETY LEG BAND NO 



FEMALE 

OUT OF CONDITION: 1 2 3 Fingers. 

CAPACITY: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fingers. 

THICKNESS OF PELVIC BONE: Vie, Vs, Vie, V^, Vi», Vs, Vie, V^, Vie, Vs, "/le. 
V4, "/i«, Vs. ^Vie, 1 in., iVie, IVs, IVie, IV4. 

PREPOTENCY: 1 2 3 4. 

TYPE: Egg pual Purpose Meat. 

Possible egg capacity in present condition eggs. 

Possible egg capacity represented by this specimen if in good condition 

eggs. 
Award 

MALE 

CAPACITY: 1 2 3 4 5 Fingers. 

THICKNESS OF PELVIC BONE: Vie, Vs, Vie. V4, Vie, Vs, Vie, V^, Vie, Vs, "/le, 
V4, 'Vie, Vs, 'Vie, 1 in., IVie, IVs, IVie, IV4. 

PREPOTENCY: 1 2 3 4. 

TYPE: Egg Dual Purpose Meat. 

NOTE — Draw a circle around or check oflf figures or words designating 
score in each section. 

Egg type represented by this specimen eggs. 

Award 

Judge 

NOTE — The awards in the Utility class are based entirely on facts given above. The 
facts on the opposite side are for the information of the owner. 

SHAPE 

Comb and Wattles Tail 

Head and Beak Breast 

Neck Body 

Back Legs and Toes 

Disqualification 



SURFACE COLOR 



Disqualification. 

Judge 

Secretary 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



113 



EXPLANATION OF SCORE CARD. 

CONDITION refers to the body condition of the bird and indicates whether or 
not the fowl is being supplied with the right quantity and quality of food and care to 
furnish the vitality and material necessary to produce the number of eggs or amount 
of flesh made possible by breeding and Nature. The condition of the male bird is not 
taken into consideration when judging, as its capacity (depth of abdomen) does not 
change periodically as does the hen. Each finger represents three-fourths inch. 

CAPACITY indicates the ability of the bird to consume and assimilate sufficient 
food to produce the desired amount of flesh or eggs. Each finger represents three- 
fourths inch. 

TYPE indicates the purpose for which the fowl is best suited— eggs, meat or dual 
purpose. The kind of type is shown by the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. 
To get the Type divide charts 1-2-3-4-5-6 and a-b-c-d-e-f-g in "Call of the Hen" into 
three equal parts as nearly as possible, commencing at the top and reading down, 
the first Part will be Egg Type, the second Part Dual Purpose Type and the third 
Part Meat Type. 

PREPOTENCY indicates the faculty of the bird to fertilize eggs and to transmit 
its predominating characteristics. 1 signifies "prepotency very large;" 2 signifies 
"prepotency full;" 3 signifies "prepotency small;" 4 signifies "prepotency very small." 

By "possible egg capacity" is meant the first year's production in the case of a 
female. 

All birds judged by this system, with the greatest degree of accuracy, should be 
mature. 

SHAPE AND SURFACE COLOR. 1, Good; 2, Medium; 3, Poor; 4, Very Poor. 

This bird was judged by the American Standard of Perfection for shape and sur- 
face color and by the charts and methods described in the "Call of the Hen" for con- 
dition, capacity, type and prepotency. 





FIG. 182— GOOD EGG TYPE— FRONT FIG. 183— GOOD EGG TYPE— REAR 
VIEW VIEW 



114 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



EGG-PRODUCTION SCORE CARD 

AMERICAN POULTRY SCHOOL 

Kansas City, Mo. 



Variety . 



Characteristics . 



Body type, 20 points — value 60 eggs 

As seen when looking at the bird. 
Rectangular — deep — well balanced. 

Body conformation, 35 points — value 105 eggs.. 
Shape from handling. 
Long-deep-full-showing capacity. 
Thickness and straightness of pelvic bones 
Broadness of back. 

Head and Adjuncts, 15 points — value 45 eggs. . 
Shape of head and surplus flesh. 
Shape of eye and eye socket. 

Handling quality, 10 points — value 30 eggs 

Soft, pliable skin. Freedom from hard fat 
or coarseness. 

Condition Moult, Maturity, 15 points — value 
45 eggs 



Pullets — fitness for production. 
Hens — freedom from moult — or recovery- 
depending on season. 

Beak, Legs and Toes, 5 points — value 15 eggs. . 
Color and surplus flesh. 



Total Cuts, 100 points — value 300 eggs. 

Total score 

Egg production — estimate 

Egg production — actual 



Individual Band Numbers. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 115 



BODY TYPE 

20 Points, 60 eggs. 

A bird of good body is usually well balanced in that the body itself must be deep, 
showing a nearly rectangular form, well developed in breast and abdomen. Great 
depth of body is especially desirable, but apparent depth must not be due to loose 
feathering, which is generally known by an evidence of loose thigh feathers. Cochin 
and exhibition game type and feathering, are usually associated with poor production. 
Large capacity is essential if a hen is to lay long and heavily. Such capacity is desig- 
nated by a body that is deeper at the rear end of the keel than at the front end. The 
underline should be fairly straight and the back should be comparatively horizontal. 
Prominent breast development, with evidence of a long keel are desirable qualities in 
a high-producing hen. The general body conformation of a heavy producer conforms 
very closely to a rectangle with pronounced angles rather than smooth curves. A male 
shows the same general characteristics as a female, except that the abdomen is not so 
deep. 

A small-capacity hen generally stands erect. The body is either very shallow and 
cut away at the breast and abdomen or in the case of beefy individuals, the abdomen 
shows a pronounced sagging at the rear of the keel, due to large accumulations of fat. 
Extremely poor producers frequently show a hump on the back. 



BODY CONFORMATION 

35 Points, I OS eggs. 

When taken in the hands, a heavy producer will show, by the sense of touch 
great depth of body, especially at the front and rear of the keel bone Depth and slab- 
sidedness may be measured by placing the thumbs on the middle of the back, and 
the little fingers on the front of the keel bone and the middle fingers on the rear end 
of the keel bone. Press in with the palms of the hands and do not squeeze the bird 
up with the fingers. The deeper and more slabsided the bird feels, the better. It is 
relative depth that is desired and not actual depth. A big hen may be actually deep 
and yet relatively shallow and hence be a poor layer. Relative depth of front to rear 
of body may be measured by spanning the body with the thumb and middle fingers 
from back to breast and sliding the fingers and thumb along the keel and back. The 
keel must be moderately straight, relatively long and carried well back. The space 
between the pelvic bones and the keel must be free from excessive accumulation of fat. 
Birds which are laying heavily can be readily detected by the development of the ab- 
domen. Such birds will show pelvic arches which are widespread and a keel which is 
forced down away from the pelvic arches so as to give large capacity. The pelvic 
bones will be thin and free from fat, straight and widely spread in heavily laying hens. 

The vent becomes large, soft and moist and, free from yellow color soon after a 
bird begins to lay. A non-laying bird has a puckered, hard, dry yellow vent. The 
condition of the vent gives information as to the present laying condition. 

The poor producer generally shows a shallow body, especially at the front of the 
keel, a small shrunken abdomen, together with all evidences of small capacity. 



116 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



HEAD, BEAK AND ADJUNCTS 

15 Points, 45 Eggs 

One of the best indications in picking high layers is the fineness of the head. 
The head of a heavy producer is fine, showing a lean face, free from wrinkles and 
overhanging eyebrows. The wattles and ear-lobes fit close to the head and are not 
loose and floppy. The face is clean cut, the eye is full, round and prominent, especially 
when seen from the front. An eye which gives a clean-cut, wide-open appearance is 
desirable The eyeball of the heavy producer is generally set in the rear of a large 
oval socket showing considerable of the white eye membrane in front of the eyeball. 
The head of the heavy producer should be well balanced, being moderately deep and 
broad. The extremely fat, full head of the beefy bird, and the long, thin pointed head 
of the low-vitality bird are both undesirable and should call for heavy cuts in this sec- 
tion. The low producing bird generally shows a depressed eye with overhanging eye- 
brows and wrinkled skin at the back of the eye. The extremely long sharp beak is 
usually possessed by the low producer, while the medium stout, well curved beak is 
characteristic of the high producer. 

HANDLING QUALITIES 

10 Points, JO Eggs. 

The skin of the heavy-producing hen is thin, soft and pliable, especially the skin 
on the abdomen must be thin and loose. The skin of the poor producer is generally 
thick, hard and rather coarse to the touch, The thin, velvety skin is almost always 
associated with heavy ovarian activity. 

CONDITION 

IS Points, 45 Eggs 

A bird to be capable of highest sustained production must be first of all, healthy. 
She must show vigor and activity and be well fleshed. Late moulting in hens is 
desirable. Early moulting and slow maturing as shown by the primary feathers, 
should be cut severely. Late developing and later maturing usually indicate low pro- 
duction. In applying this section to hens, health and moulting conditions should be 
given primary consideration. In applying this section to pullets, health and maturity 
should be given primary consideration. 

BEAK, LEGS AND TOES 

5 Points 15 Eggs. 

The shanks of a heavy producer are flat, pliable and smooth scaled. In hens at 
the end of their laying year, or pullets which have been laying heavily for some time, 
the shanks will be bleached out. The toes should be straight and the toe nails show an 
indication of proper activity. The shanks of the poor producer are usually round, hard 
and rather coarse scaled. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



117 



WALTER HOGAN'S SYSTEM. 




WALTER HOGAN. Deceased 
The Originator of the Walter Hogan System. 



There are two ways of selection, described in this document. 

When hens are in flush of laying, selection by the pelvic bones alone 
is the easier way; but when not in flush of laying, the pelvic bones 
together with the abdomen will be found the most ready way. (See 
Supplement, next page.) 

Please bear in mind that the hen with thin pelvic bones and large, 
soft abdomen is the heavy egg-laying type. 

The hen with thick pelvic bones and large, fleshy, fatty abdomen 
is the large beef type. 

The hen with medium-thick pelvic bones and large, medium-fleshy 
and medium-fatty abdomen is the dual-purpose type, and can be made 
to lay fairly well or made to produce flesh, it being a matter of how she 
is fed. 

The hen with small abdomen is of small account, either as an egg 
or as a meat proposition, as she lacks the abdominal capacity to digest 
and assimilate food enough to sustain the every-day wear of her system 
and at the same time to produce eggs or flesh in paying quantities. 

Everything related here applies to the male bird as well, only in a 
lesser degree. 

The remarks in regard to pullets refer to mature pullets, as Leghorn 
pullets are at five months old in the New England States. 



118 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

My birds in Massachusetts were bred for eggs only for years, and 
their type became set and their pelvic bones contracted, when not laying, 
to average about 25 per cent; but I find that hens bred promiscuously 
contract about 50 per cent. 

The points to be borne in mind in using this System are: 

That selection by the pelvic bones alone is best made in the flush 
of laying. 

That thin pelvic bones and soft abdomen indicate the egg type. 

That thick pelvic bones and hard, fleshy, fatty abdomen indicate 
the beef type. 

The size of the abdomen indicates the capacity of the bird, either 
as an egg or as a meat proposition as the case may be — large abdomen, 
large capacity; small abdomen, small capacity. 

The same rules apply to the cockerel, cock, male bird, or rooster, 
as he may be called. 

In order to determine the capacity of a hen for egg-production by 
one selection, she should be in normal condition and not more than a 
few days broody. 

The estimates in this document refer to hens about one year old. 
As a rule, they will lay less each year as they grow older — how much 
less depends on the vitality of the hen, other things considered. 

Supplement to Walter Hogan's System. 

If you will get a little 1-foot rule to check yourself up while getting 
used to measuring with the tips of your fingers, as in Fig. 4, you will 
have no trouble in applying its principles right. You can hold the bird 
feet up and head down between your knees while you are measuring; 
then hold as in Fig. 4, and learn to estimate the width right. Anything 
under 1 inch will not pay, all over 1}/^ inches will pay; from 1 to I'/s 
inches are doubtful; 2 inches is about the 200-egg type; 2^/i inches about 
the 250-egg type, and 2% inches about the 280-egg type. 

Hens measuring from 1 to IVs inches should be put in a yard while 
being fed well and looked over once a week at night in the dark for 
about eight weeks, if you wish to make a careful test. Any that come 
up or down in measurement can be put in the good or bad yards, as the 
case may be. Hens will go up or down about 25 per cent in measurements 
as they are in flush of laying or not. The best time to examine hens is 
after dark while on roost, which should be about 18 inches from the floor. 
Place left hand on back of hen, lift up tail with thumb of right hand, and 
apply tips of fingers to pelvic bones. With a little practice you will 
be able to inspect thirty per minute. It is admitted by all physicians, 
professors, and students of physiology that I have talked with in regard 
to this matter that the abdominal capacity of a hen, together with a 
strong vital temperament, has everything to do with her value as a 
laying proposition. The pelvic bones (being a continuation of the body 
structure of the fowl and subject to very small changes in the formation 
of flesh) are, when comparatively straight and thin, an index to the width 
of the abdomen, and the best if not the only one we have, as they protrude 
from the body and may be easily measured. The depth of the abdomen 
can be taken by placing the palm of the hand crosswise below, between 
the pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. Sometimes it will be 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 fingers. (A finger means ^ of an inch.) Also place 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 119 

fingers between pelvic bones and taiWbone. Sometimes it will take one, 
sometimes two fingers. In this way you can judge the size of the ab- 
domen, which, with the pelvic development, will be a rule as to a hen's 
value as a layer, except in rare cases of misplaced or diseased organs. 
Sometimes a hen will have a large abdomen, but her pelvic bones will 
grow crooked and come almost together, like the horns of a Jersey cow, 
and she will lay better than the distance apart of her pelvic bones will 
indicate, but never will do as well as she should, and should not be bred 
from. She wastes too much nervous force in laying. The farther you 
get away from the crow formation the better your hens will be. 

As a rule, fowls are almost twice as long coming to maturity in 
California as they are in the Eastern and Middle Western States. What 
the reason is I suspect, but do not know, but will find out in the next 
two years. 

No document purporting to be a copy of "Walter Hogan's System" 
is genuine without my signature as is set hereunder. Wishing you the 
best of success, I am, sincerely yours. 

The Walter Hogan System of Increasing Egg-Production by 
Selection and Breeding. 

It has been estimated that to add one-half dozen eggs to the annual 
producing capacity of every hen in the United States would result in 
additional returns from our poultry sufficient to pay the national debt 
within less than a year. Allowing this to be true, we are prepared to 
show that the method of selection and breeding herein outlined is capable 
of paying off our great debt several times during a single year, without 
having to increase the number of hens kept a single bird or the cost of 
keeping them a single dollar. 

The method — or "discovery," we might call it — has been tested by 
the writer in every conceivable way, regardless of expense, time, or 
trouble, and has been found absolutely faultless in every particular. 
It has been submitted to one Government Experiment Station (as will 
be shown later) with the same unerring results, and also to a number 
of the foremost poultrymen of America, who fully and without exception 
corroborate all that is claimed. 

This, you will agree with us, means a revolution in economical egg- 
production; it means, too, that no poultryman, however small his flock, 
can afford to go on in the old way a single year longer. 

Every animal on the farm has a well-defined mission all its own, 
outside of the general one of producing meat. The great mission of 
the cow is to produce milk; of the sheep, wool; and the mission of the 
hen is evidently and pre-eminently egg-production. This being the case, 
her value varies or should vary largely with her ability to produce eggs. 
And still it is a well-known fact that, while every farm animal has been 
selected and bred for the best there was in it along its own peculiar line, 
and all prizes have been awarded accordingly, the hen has been bred 
largely and prizes awarded her almost wholly for feathers and markings, 
the judges seldom or never deeming it important to know whether she 
was capable of laying at all or not. 

The writer was amazed to find this state of things when, some 
years ago, he turned his attention from managing woolen-mill interests 
to trying to manage a poultry-yard. But, in spite of the fact that he 



120 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

was wholly unable to find a bird or strain that were known to be excep- 
tional egg-producers, he succeeded, within six years after starting, in 
building up a flock that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs 
per hen. 




Cut No. 1 — A Leghorn hen showing this development has the egg-laying instinct 
at its maximum. 

Before deciding to publish this work, I found, after diligent inquiry 
among the leading poultrymen of the United States and Canada, and 
some correspondence reaching to other countries, that there was no known 
method — other than the slow and costly one of trap-nesting — of selecting 
birds of great egg-producing capacity. Trap-nesting, in addition to the 
faults mentioned, which makes it almost impracticable for the farmer, 
had a still more serious one in the writer's judgment; it could not trap- 
nest roosters, which I have found to be more than "half the flock." For 
this seemingly insurmountable difificulty I have found an easy solution, 
and can as readily identify the male as the female, and as unerringly. 

The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a method, 
and a development all in one. The happy inspiration and discovery 
came within a few hours; but it has reached this workable and abso- 
lutely reliable form by a costly analytical and experimental process 
extending through years. After the underlying principle had been found, 
it had to be tested and proved to my own satisfaction. Then the various 
objections and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, had to be 
answered or met by actual practical experiences. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN, 121 

The method enables one: 

1. To easily and without error weed out all the worthless birds 
from a flock; those that do not lay at all, also those that lay so little that 
it is a loss to keep them. This alone means millions to this country. 

2. _To separate just as unerringly all pullets before they begin to 
lay; indicating the coming great layers, the fair layers, the very poor, 
and the barren. The latter will be found in nearly all flocks. 

3. To tell those not liable to lay when disposing of old or other 
hens for the table or market or for other reasons. 




Cut No. 2 — This is a hen of minimum development. She is a fair layer. 

Beginning my investigation, as I was compelled to, with birds 
selected wholly without egg-record, I was soon greatly impressed with 
the dissimilarity of formation of the pelvic bones and surrounding 
portions of the body, particularly of the former. Some I found nearly 
closed up, hard, and unyielding; others barely admitting one finger 
between these points; while a very few would easily admit the end of 
three fingers between the tips of the pelvic bones, and these were generally 
thin, tapering, and elastic. With this clue, I was not long in finding 
that my great layers were the latter and my barren and nearly barren 
ones the first mentioned. My attention was next forcibly called to this 
by seeing a long row of dressed pullets and hens in a butchering estab- 
lishment. Noticing the great difference in the formation, I secured the 
privilege of numbering the hens and having the entrails, as they were 
removed, left by the side of each bird. In every instance I found my 



122 



THE CALL OF THE HEN 




Cut No. 3 — Hens of this development are of little or no value as layers. 




Cut No. 4 — Showing a convenient method of holding fowls when testing them. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 123 

suspicion verified; the indications of large numbers of eggs and ample 
machinery to go with them, with the wide, pliable pelvic bones; and 
just the opposite condition with the narrow ones, the very least, or no 
egg indications whatever, with the bones very close together at the 
points and unyielding to pressure, hard, thick, and rounded in. This 
experiment was tried again and again, with different breeds, but never 
with different results. 

I was satisfied I was on the right trail now, and determined to spare 
neither time nor money to make sure I was right. For several years 
following these discoveries I spent much time and money visiting well- 
known poultrymen and others, frequently paying as high as $10.00 for 
best known layers, only to kill them to prove or disprove my conclusions 
— to photograph the live bird, next her dressed body, then her skeleton. 
In every instance I found my theory correct. I divided my own flock 
according to my findings into three flocks, and the very first day's lay 
proved my theory beyond question, so far as one day could. I then 
divided other and many flocks; but wherever they were and whatever 
breed, without an exception the same result followed. 

Skipping a number of years, I might say right here that in 1904 I 
divided the flock of Leghorns, Wyandottes, and Plymouth Rocks at 
the Minnesota Experiment Station at Crookston into three pens: first, 
the best; second, medium to poor; third, very poor or barren. I was 
about twenty-five minutes doing this in the presence of C. S. Greene, 
at that time the manager, whom nearly all the leading poultrymen knew, 
and Mr. T. A. Hoverstad, then superintendent of the station. These 
gentlemen then had absolutely no faith in the method, not knowing 
anything about it; but were assured by me that if the barren pen laid 
an egg or either of the others failed to perform as I indicated, they were 
at liberty to publish the method and me to the world as a fraud. The 
first day showed pen No, 1, 45 eggs; pen No. 2, 20 eggs; pen No. 3, 
no eggs, and this continued, with slight variations, the entire period of 
the experiment, which lasted for weeks; though not a single egg appeared 
in the barren pen. The per cent of eggs to the 100 hens for the entire 
time was: First pen, 60 per cent per day; second pen, 37 per cent; 
third pen, nothing. But for lack of room I might give many more experi- 
ments and tests fully as startling as the above. 

But to go on: Within a few years after selecting my first layers 
in th'? way, I had a flock the larger part of which was laying 200 eggs 
and above per year, individual layers greatly exceeding this. 

Then came another discovery, fully as important as the first. I 
noticed that, though I hatched all my pullets from the best layers' eggs, 
some of them were exceedingly poor layers; now and then one of them 
barren. I studied upon this for a long time, spent more money, and 
killed many more birds. Then with another idea, which as suddenly 
as the first dawned upon me, I made for the slaughter-house once more. 
I soon had a row of forty or so dressed male birds this time laid out 
before me; and then at a glance I saw my long-sought solution. There 
was the same great difference in the pelvic formation found in the hens 
I examined my roosters to find that half of them were absolutely worth- 
less. Why do I say that the rooster "is MORE than half the flock?" 
Because later I found, as many know, that the female offspring take 
largely after the father and the male offspring after the mother. It is 
so with all animals, and almost always so in the human family. Had 



124 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

I used males of my own raising, I should have done better, but I had 
not. By the way, I found two high-priced and "high-scoring" birds 
used at the Crookston Station in 1904 absolutely without value, and Mr. 
Greene now agrees with me fully that they were, although he was at 
the time quite indignant when I pronounced his costly beauties worthless. 

I may say here that, while I found one very good exhibition bird in 
this experiment station flock that was wholly worthless as a layer, I am 
pleased indeed to be able to state that one bird which had taken several 
prizes for markings, etc., I found to be a priceless layer. I never saw 
but one bird that came anywhere near being that hen's equal. I found 
one, however, with very poor markings that outranked any hen but her. 

From this time on breeding hastened matters fully as much as selec- 
tion, and I soon had — or rather, to be accurate, at the end of six years 
from my first start I had a FLOCK AVERAGING CLOSE AROUND 
250 EGGS EACH PER YEAR; A FLOCK PAYING ME MORE 
THAN DOUBLE THE PROFIT MY FIRST FLOCK COULD. Dur- 
ing the last few years of this period I again and again, for experimental 
purposes, mated excellent hens with narrow-pelvic-boned males, and every 
time a crop of pullets that varied greatly in egg-yield was the result. 
Again and again I bred wide-pelvic-boned males with narrow-boned 
females with the same results. But wide-pelvic-boned males with hens 
of the same formation (with the exception now and then at far-apart 
intervals, a freak) brought excellent layers. Occasionally a male bird 
failed to transmit well, but this I afterwards found was only when it 
was wholly lacking in masculine qualities, as denoted by the width and 
depth of head and back of neck, with other indications common to mas- 
culinity in all other animals. From this time I began mating wide- 
pelvic-boned males with my widest hens and a marked increase in the 
number of great layers was evident — in fact, the third year it was the 
great exception to find anything but first-class layers among the pullets. 



Its Advantages. 

The advantages of this method for one owning even a small flock 
of birds are so apparent that space need not be given to discuss it. To 
one having a large flock it means, must mean, a small fortune, in addi- 
tional profit, with no more labor or investment; to those engaged in 
selling eggs for hatching it is bound to mean everything in the near 
future. It would be simply suicidal for a farmer, or anyone depending 
upon the eggs of his flock for the profit, to be so unbusinesslike as to buy 
eggs for hatching from untested flocks. We do not believe it would 
be possible to find one who would do so, after knowing from experiment 
stations and otherwise that the method is unfailing. 

Some of the advantages over trap-nesting have been stated; per- 
haps the strongest being that we cannot trap-nest roosters. In ad- 
dition, I might call attention to the fact that trap-nesting a single bird 
must extend over the entire year to be at all accurate, and would take 
many times the amount of time it would require — by this method — 
to settle the laying possibilities of a thousand pullets. A little more 
time would settle the laying powers of a large mixed flock at mixed 
laying seasons, which might require two or at least three examinations 
a week or ten days apart. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 125 

Again, a worthless pullet can be found when she is from five to six 
months old and fattened and sold without having to keep her a full year 
in order to do it safely. Besides, handling hens almost always tends 
to disturb and discourage laying. Trap-nesting will, if persistently 
followed the entire year, give nearly the exact individual record, which 
is not material to one egg man in a thousand. It cannot be exact, 
however, as a shut-in and otherwise disturbed hen never does her best. 

This method applies to other birds as well — turkeys, for instance. 
Last fall I bought two turkeys for experiment; one was SMALL, with 
LARGE egg-development; the other LARGE with SMALL egg-de- 
velopment. The small bird has laid and hatched out two litters of four- 
teen each the present season, and has at this date laid twenty-three 
eggs toward a third litter. The large one laid and hatched fourteen 
eggs early in the season, and has shown no signs of laying since, but 
has taken on much more flesh than the laying turkey. This would, in 
addition to indicating laying turkeys, also show what to breed if large 
birds only are desired — as would nearly always be the case with turkeys. 

The absolute surety of never killing a bird for market or home 
consumption that is laying, about to begin laying, or is liable to lay in 
the near future, is another decided advantage over the trap-nest, and 
one of the quickest available advantages of the system. 

Again, the process requires no investment in patent nests, leg- 
bands, or" other fixings, which amount, in trap-nesting, to many times 
the first and only cost of this method. For accuracy in all the ad- 
vantages claimed for this method, we will most gladly submit to a test 
with the greatest expert trap-nester that can be selected, if it can be so 
arranged that some high authority in poultry matters or some Govern- 
ment Experiment Station shall have charge of it. This unconditional 
ofifer we make to the world. 



How TO Select. 

As a basic principle of this method of identifying capacity for egg- 
production is the width and relative condition of the pelvic bones and 
surrounding construction, it is obvious that exact measurements cannot 
be given, unless a distinct breed be designated. A Cochin lays a large 
egg, and is built accordingly; a Bantam lays a small egg, and its pelvic 
development in inches is correspondingly smaller. It would be manifestly 
misleading to apply the same measurements to the two birds. 

While the ability to make this allowance will come to the operator 
quickly — almost intuitively after a very short experience — I have 
thought best to confine all my descriptions and measurements here to 
one breed of fowls only, the Leghorns, these being a medium-sized, 
representative bird, well scattered over the entire country. It will be 
easy from the measurements to work up or down, as the birds on hand 
may be larger or smaller. It is all a matter of comparison, and, all things 
being equal, the bird with the widest and most pliable pelvic bones will 
be the greatest layer, while the one with very narrow contracted pelvic 
formation will lay little, if at all. Behind the pelvic bones lies the egg 
machinery, and it will be found more abundant and roomy the wider 
the bones. 



126 the call of the hen. 

Selecting Pullets. 
(Leghorns.) 

Perhaps the best time to select layers for a flock is when the pullets 
are from four to six months old. If all are in a uniformly thrifty con- 
dition at this time, it is next to impossible to make a mistake. The 
best pullets at that age should show a width of about 2 inches, while the 
best matured laying hens should show a development of about 2^ 1% 
inches. (See cut No. 1.) 

Pullets of Plymouth Rocks and their class should be selected about 
a month later and then show slightly larger, about 2V8 inches. The 
best Asiatic pullet, about 23^ inches at seven or eight months old; 
the Leghorns being earlier maturers. At the end of six years of careful 
selecting and breeding I found my Leghorn pullets quite as wide and well 
matured at four months as my first ones were at five months. 

Second-class Leghorn pullets from five to seven months old will 
show a development of about P/s inches. (See cut No. 2.) 

At six months old all Leghorn pullets showing only 1 inch or less 
pelvic development should be discarded, regardless of feather or comb. 
They will never make layers. (See cut No. 3.) 

All things being equal, the earlier a pullet begins to lay the better 
and longer will she lay. 

Selecting Mature Layers. 

The next best time to ascertain a hen's laying qualities is when 
the whole flock is in the flush of laying — in other words, when about 
all are at work. Those found then to measure about 2V8 inches are 
extremely good layers. Some flocks have very few of these priceless 
birds in them, while others have good numbers. From this class of 
layers, and above that measurement, and from these only, should eggs 
be saved for hatching. 

Occasionally hens are found measuring as high as 2^ inches; 
these hens, with the best of care, will lay as high as 280 eggs per year; 
those measuring about 2^/8 inches may be depended upon to go as high 
as 250. The fact that this kind of hen can be found is ample proof 
that with proper selection they can be bred in large numbers. 

Hens found at this time measuring from iVs to 2 inches are real 
good layers, and should not be discarded, if one wishes to build up a 
large flock, but they should not be bred from hens in the flush of laying 
measuring only V/i to 13^ inches are poor, and those showing from 
an inch down should be discarded, regardless of shape or color. 

A large enough flock of the first mentioned hens would make any 
poor man rich; the second kind would keep themselves and their owners 
going; while many of the last-named class would make a rich man poor. 

Poor layers, kept well and fed a large variety of scraps and other 
foods, will sometimes make pretty fair egg records for a short time, 
and birds of the best quality, under exceptionally hard conditions, will 
make poor records. There are also occasional freaks in both extremes 
of measurements, but they are so infrequent as not to be at all important. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 127 

Approximately 280-egg hens that measure as high as 2^1% inches in the 
flush of laying will show about Vs to 3^ inch less when not laying and 
this shrinkage in measurement will apply to all other grades in about 
this proportion. 

Selecting for Fall Marketing. 

We do not like to kill birds about to begin laying, that are laying, 
or really good ones that are just through laying, particularly when there 
are plenty in the flock that do not come under any of these heads. 

In this alone the cost of this method, when once well understood, 
can be saved several times in a single season with a good-sized flock of 
birds. 

While the exceptionally heavy layers can be told readily and at 
almost any time, laying or not, and an absolutely worthless bird can 
be told the same way, there is a time, just when the real good layer is 
resting and the common to poor layer is doing her best, when they come 
— for a short time only — close together in pelvic appearance. 

While it is not safe to kill a bird that measures IVs inches or over, 
it is possible for a very fair layer to not be much wider than that at the 
close of laying out her litter. Some good layers, that in the flush of 
laying will measure 1^ to 2 inches, at the close of their laying period 
will sometimes close up to about P/s inches. A very poor layer in the 
flush of her laying time might be V/i to IVs inches, so care must be taken 
at this period not to confound the two conditions, which do not exist 
at any other time. This is referred to in the Introduction. To wholly pre- 
vent this — when it is desired to save every at all good layer — it is well 
to make two or possibly three examinations, a week or so apart. In 
this way there will be no danger of confounding the one about to begin 
laying with the one about to quit, and the poor layer can be told from 
the good one. 

When killing a whole flock at two or three years old, as many do, 
no hen measuring iVs inches and under is worth keeping; particularly 
is this true if the birds have been well fed and stimulated to about their 
full capacity. No hen of any value for egg-production will have an 
egg in her at this time and measure so small unless she is a slow, in- 
frequent layer at her best. Sometimes this kind of a hen with the very 
small measurements will be found laying an occasional ^gg late in the 
season. 

Selecting Roosters. 

We have said how important it is to have males of the right for- 
mation to mate with the great layers for breeding purposes; we need 
not emphasize this; it is so evident that we cannot trap-nest a rooster, 
and equally so that years of trap-nesting hens can be ruinously upset 
in a day by crossing with an inferior male, that it would reflect upon 
our estimation of the reader's intelligence to say more about it. 

I have found Leghorn roosters that measured 1% inches, but they 
are rare and priceless. A good matured bird should measure iVs inches 
and a pretty fair one 1 inch. I would not use one that measured less, 
if I could possibly help it. Many fine-looking birds measure only Y2 
inch, but such ones will ruin the offspring of the best layers and should 
be discarded, whatever their qualities in feather, tip of comb, or any- 
thing else. 



128 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Now and then the objection reaches us that the high-type roosters 
referred to cannot be found. I have found them, as others have, and 
I believe there are nearly or quite as many in proportion as there are 
of the 250 and above hens; but we do not save all the roosters as we 
do all the pullets, and they are correspondingly scarce among mature 
males. By selecting always from large numbers of males before they 
are killed off this objection will be largely and quickly overcome. 

The fact that males of this class can be selected is of itself a dis- 
covery sufficient to revolutionize the whole poultry business without 
the examination of a single hen — were time enough taken; but the two 
together bring absolute and immediate results. 

In the hands of a slightly experienced or an at all competent person 
the element of chance is entirely removed by this method of selecting 
layers and males; and one is just as sure of the results sought as that 
a hen will die if her head is cut off. 

We ask but one thing: that judgment be withheld till method 
be tried. If the tests are fairly conducted, there can be no failure. 

Crude infringements and imitations of this discovery and System 
— as of everything else of value that has cost years of investigating and 
experimenting — are liable to spring up, but the safety and economy of 
going direct to the fountain-head need scarcely be suggested. 

Dated November 20, 1904. 

Proper Time to Cull Layers and Breeders. 

As far as vitality is concerned, a practical poultryman should cull 
his chickens from the time they are hatched until they are sold or dis- 
carded. Continually eliminate sick and diseased birds and those show- 
ing weakness of any nature whenever you see evidences of same. 

As far as culling for egg production is concerned, the best months 
in which to do this are from June until December 1st. In the warm 
climates culling should begin in April and May. Other conditions being 
equal, culling should continue throughout the summer. This will enable 
you to eliminate your unprofitable birds and greatly reduce your feed bills. 

LESSON 10. 



On Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production. 

1. What four things influence egg production or largely deter- 
mines the number of eggs a hen will lay? 

2. What is "capacity," and how is it measured or determined? 

3. What outside factors or environments are largely responsible 
for the "condition" of any hen? 

4. How does the breast of the hen appear when she is in good 
"condition?" 

5. The first joint of the forefinger is divided into how many parts 
for the purpose of determining "condition," cr represents how many 
fingers out of "condition?" 

6. If a hen has a one-finger abdomen or "capacity" and is three 
fingers out of "condition," about how many fingers abdomen of "capac- 
ity" would she have if the same hen was in "condition?" or, in other 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 129 

words, each finger out of "condition" means how many more fingers 
"capacity" or depth of abdomen if the same hen was in normal "con- 
dition?" 

7. What is meant by "egg-type?" by "dual-purpose type?" by 
"beef- type?" How do you determine each of the three types? 

8. Do we find all three "types" in all varieties of poultry or are 
each of these "types" confined to certain varieties or breeds of poultry? 

9. A hen in good condition, with a two-finger abdomen or "ca- 
pacity" and 3^-inch pelvic bone, should lay about how many eggs during 
her first year? 

10. A hen in good condition, with a five-finger abdomen or "ca- 
pacity" and a 1-16-inch pelvic bone, should lay about how many eggs 
the first year? 

LESSON 11. 



Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production. 

1. Should we breed from poultry with straight or crooked pelvic 
bones? Why? 

2. What does it indicate, in judging males or females for "pre- 
potency," as described in this method, if the thumb is 1-8 of an inch 
ahead of the forefinger? If the thumb is 3^ of an inch behind the fore- 
finger? 

3. Which of the two would make the best breeder in transmitting 
■its good qualities to its offspring? 

4. Some poultrymen mate females with a record of 150 eggs 
each to males of the 150-egg type of males bred from hens with equally 
good records, and the offspring from such matings often lay only 100 
or 125 eggs on the average. In your opinion, what causes this decrease 
in the number of eggs? 

5. Other things being equal, would you prefer to breed from a male 
bred from a high-laying hen, or from one bred from a medium layer? 
Why? 

6. What is meant by "stamina" and "vigor" in poultry? 

7. Which has the most to do with determining the number of eggs 
a hen will lay— the breeding, the feeding or the housing? Why? 

8. What difference would there be in the probable number 
of eggs laid by a hen with lots of "capacity," a six finger abdomen, with 
a thick pelvic bone, 1 inch in thickness, and a hen with but little "ca- 
pacity," a two-finger abdomen, with a rather thin pelvic bone, 5-16 
of an inch in thickness, both hens being in good condition. 

9. What, if anything, has the width or the distance between 
the pelvic bones themselves got to do with egg production? 

10. Do we feed hens for the purpose of feeding eggs into their 
bodies, or do we feed them to develop the eggs which selection and breed- 
ing or nature has placed within the hen? 



130 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



THE PASSING OF WALTER HOGAN. 

A Tribute To An Earnest Man and the Work He Did in Behalf of the Poultry Industry. 

By T. E. Quisenberry. 

In the death of Walter Hogan, the poultry world, in my opinion, has lost one 
of its greatest benefactors. He was the author of the book "The Call of the Hen," 
which gives a method of distinguishing the good layers from the poor ones by the ex- 
amination of external characteristics. Mr. Hogan's book has been a great seller and 
has made him known wherever poultry is kept. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Hogan had been in poor health for a good many years. Dur- 
ing the year I had charge of the poultry department at the Panama-Pacific Exposition 
at San Francisco, scarcely a week passed that I did not come in contact with Mr. Hogan, 
either at his farm or in my office, and I feel that I knew him as well perhaps as any 
other poultry breeder. He died at his home in Petaluma February 4, 1921, leaving 
a wife and several grown children. The latter will carry on his work under the title "The 
Walter Hogan Company." His family has the sympathy and best wishes of the entire 
poultry world. They are thoroughly conversant with his work for they have had to 
care for it for several years because of Mr. Hogan's failing health. 

While I was director of the Missouri State Poultry Experiment Station, Mr. Hogan 
sent me a typewritten copy of his first circular revealing his method of selecting hens 
for egg production. Little attention was paid to his circular because we felt that there 
was nothing to it and that he probably was a "crank" on the subject, but Mr. Hogan 
was persistent in writing personal letters and finally asked me if I would trap-nest a pen 
of hens which he would test by his method and send to me. Finally he sent me a good 
male and a poor one to breed from and a good pen and a poor pen to trap-nest and asked 
me to compare their records with other birds which I had under test. This was 
done and the results proved to be about what he had predicted, which caused me to be- 
come interested in his method. That year we had about 1,000 hens in the Egg Laying 
Contest and before each hen was cooped and returned to her owner, she was tested 
according to the Hogan method and a comparison made with her trap-nest record. 
We found that they tallied with Mr. Hogan's system in practically every case. 

About that time I established the American Poultry School and Mr. Hogan re- 
quested that we publish his book on selection and breeding for egg production, sub- 
mitting a copy of his book the "Call of the Hen," of which a limited number had been 
printed. It was poorly bound, poorly printed and poorly illustrated, but confident 
that it contained worth while facts, I made a contract with Mr. Hogan to revise and 
improve his book and to advertise and push the sale of it, which I have done from 
that date. Thousands of copies of this book have gone to all parts of the world. Mr. 
Hogan authorized us to sell each copy with a "money back" guarantee. Of the thou- 
sands which have been sold, not one copy has ever been returned. 

The world often hesitates to give credit where credit is due but, in my opinion, 
no one man has done as much to aid the poultrymen of the world in culling out their 
drones and nonproducing hens as Walter Hogan. At that time many poultry authori- 
ties and leading poultrymen made sport of the idea that anything could be told about 
the productive ability of a hen by her external characteristics, and at the same time 
anyone who stated he had a hen with a record of more than 200 eggs was regarded with 
suspicion. A great change has taken place during these seven years and the Hogan 
method in whole or in part is now in general use. Some new facts are being developed 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 131 

from time to time and no system is perfect, but Mr. Hogan and his book set the poultry 
world to thinking and to him is due the credit for starting the agitation which has re- 
sulted in a definite system of culling and selection of layers. 

The value of Mr. Hogan's method lies not in telling to the very egg the number a 
hen will lay or has laid, but it enables you to tell your good producers from your poor 
producers, your money makers from your money losers, your layers from your loafers. 
Undoubtedly the selection and culling that has been done by poultrymen, by government 
and state authorities during the past few years has saved millions of dollars for the 
poultry producers of the nation. A thorough study of the methods used and recom- 
mended will convince the unbiased person that the methods recommended by Mr. 
Hogan are the basis for practically all other methods of culling. 

Walter Hogan was not a money maker and to him came little return for what he 
gave to the world. If he felt any bitterness over this fact, he always dismissed the sub- 
ject with a jest and a smile. He was willing to do what he could for humanity and to 
wait for his reward. Without making any pretensions to superior goodness, he was a 
Christian in the true meaning of the word. His book and his system were the pride 
of his life and I know he would appreciate a tribute paid to his work more than one 
paid to him personally. He was unassuming and lived a simple life. He has passed 
from us, but his memory, his methods and the lesson he has taught will live forever 
and the poultrymen of the future will be greatly benefited by them. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE. 

1. Go into your own poultry yards and handle, test and measure some of your 
good layers and poor layers from time to time until you become accustomed to the 
measurements and differences. You will soon be able to apply the test rapidly and 
accurately. 

2. Make these tests at different seasons and you will see how the birds vary 
at different times and will learn to make due allowance for same. 

3. After you have culled your flock keep the poor ones in a pen to themselves 
for a few days. Keep a record of all eggs from the good and bad. If you have 
done your wOrk properly the eggs laid by the culls will be few in number compared 
with those laid by the good females. If this is true you are safe in marketing the 
culls. 

4. Test your males in the same manner, but remember that the difference is 
not so great. I would select males with pelvic bones reasonably straight, moder- 
ately thin and fair capacity and distance between the bones. I would consider color 
and other desirable points which are wanted in a good breeder. 

WARNING. 

Don't be deceived by misrepresentations or attacks on this system of selection of 
your laying hens. Regardless of what anyone may say or write, the facts mentioned in 
this book are the basic principles to be used in selection of your best breeders for egg 
production. 



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